Line #9 Film/Society


1	[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ec3cf49c9700db77c297d394c39701f2.jpg]]
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3	''Society'' is a 1989 BodyHorror-[[HorrorComedy comedy]] film and the directorial debut of ''Film/ReAnimator'' producer Creator/BrianYuzna.
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5	Bill Whitney (Creator/BillyWarlock) is a popular teenager living in Beverly Hills, the only son of a wealthy upper class family. Despite his privileged position, he feels out of place in his family and life. Several strange circumstances lead him to suspect that his family and friends may not be what they seem, as Bill uncovers a conspiracy among the higher members of society.
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7	A sequel comic, ''Society: Party Animal'', was released in 2003.
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9	Has nothing to do with the 2019 Creator/{{Netflix}} fantasy teen drama ''Series/TheSociety''.
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11	!!This film provides examples of:
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13	* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Clarissa ends up a fugitive because of this unspoken law in Society. While she didn't do the murder, she was in league with the perpetrator.
14	* AssShove:
15	** Judge Carter shoves his hand up [[spoiler:Dave Blanchard's]] ass and out of his mouth.
16	--->"''Let's get...to the BOTTOM...of this!''"
17	** Inverted with [[spoiler:Ted Ferguson]], who gets his head pulled ''out'' of his own ass.
18	* BaitAndSwitch: Jenny's first scene seems like it's setting her up to get killed by the creepy guy, Dave Blanchard, hiding in her closet [[BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible who jumps out at her and attacks her.]] In reality, [[spoiler:he's trying to warn Jenny and Billy about the incestuous alien society, though he doesn't succeed.]]
19	* BigBad: The honorable Judge Carter, the leader (or at least the most visibly powerful) of the titular upper-class cult, and the ringleader of the climactic "shunt" at the end.
20	* BlackComedy: ''"Well son, I guess you were right: I AM a butthead!"'' There are a few other jokes that pop up during the climax, with the resultant MoodWhiplash providing something of a relief from the otherwise horrific sights and sounds.
21	* BodyHorror: Bucketloads of it. The Society members can mutate their forms in anatomically impossible ways. The climax of the film features a murderous "orgy" where they merge into each other while consuming a hapless victim.
22	* BoobsAndButtPose: JustifiedTrope in that Jenny twists around in the shower to have ''both'' facing ''front''. A ''literal'' Escher girl.
23	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: When Clarissa is making Bill some tea she offers him cream, sugar, or she could pee in it.
24	* BrutalHonesty:
25	-->'''Ted:''' You know the schedule; first, we dine. Then, I fucked your sister. Then, everybody else got so turned on, they fucked her too. As far as bagel-breath Blanchard goes; I ran that low-rent fool right into a pole. Pretty busy week, don't you think?
26	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Most peripheral characters seem very much "off" from the get-go, but Clarissa's mother Ms. Carlyn stands out in particular. She's a huge woman with an intimidating presence who never speaks, enjoys eating hair, and in the words of one reviewer, "seems to have wandered in from a Creator/JohnWaters movie that was shooting next door." Luckily, despite being a member of high society and implicitly having the same gruesome abilities as her daughter, Ms. Carlyn is totally harmless and benign, even helping to save the day at the end.
27	* CreepyGood: It's not exactly clear whether Ms. Carlyn has ever participated in shunting, given that she eats hair just like the judge, but we never see her do anything aggressive except protect her daughter, who is heroic.
28	* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
29	** Good God, poor [[spoiler:Dave Blanchard]]... his body is slowly and painfully absorbed by a mass of mutated people.
30	** [[spoiler:Ted Ferguson]] gets an equally nasty one, dying via a hand up his crotch that grabs him through the mouth and eye sockets like a bowling ball, and pulls him inside out.
31	* DefectorFromDecadence: Clarissa has the same ability to "shunt" as the other Society members but falls in love with Billy and never uses it to harm anyone. The same presumably applies to her extremely weird but ultimately benign mother.
32	* DepravedBisexual: Society's members aren't picky about who they have sex with, as evidenced by Ted [[LecherousLicking licking]] Billy's face in the climax. The first sign that something is wrong is Jenny exciting saying that [[PsychoLesbian you can have sex with women (and men) post-coming out.]]
33	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
34	** The film isn't subtle about class warfare metaphors.
35	--->'''Ted:''' The rich have always sucked off low-class shit like you!
36	** The film is also rife with sexual subtext. A boy at one point [[https://rantbit.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/society3.jpeg spurts a creamy white sun lotion over Shauna]] that resembles... something else, while Clarisse [[https://rantbit.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/society1.png does the same to Billy]], provocatively telling him "Don't get too hot."
37	* ExactWords: Both Billy’s parents and Judge Carter keep telling him "You really do deserve what’s going to happen to you," and "You’re going to make a very valuable contribution to society." [[spoiler: What they ''mean'' is they intend to shunt him, and he'll "contribute to society" by being absorbed into them.]]
38	* FanDisservice: Jenny is really adorable and quite attractive, but once you take her "contributions" to Society into account...
39	* FauxAffablyEvil: Most of the Society members are nauseatingly polite.
40	* {{Gaslighting}}: After the Society is exposed, Billy realizes that all the messed-up things they've been showing him, including several displays of their LovecraftianSuperpower, were in an effort to make him lose his mind.
41	* GoodBadGirl: Clarissa is initially depicted as the school's "bad girl" but (along with her mother) turns out to be Society's TokenHeroicOrc. This is in stark contrast to Bill's sister Jenny, who outwardly appears innocent and seems to be gearing up to be your typical pretty {{socialite}}, but is really just as depraved as the rest of Society. The contrast is further emphasised through Clarissa's dark hair and Jenny's blond hair.
42	* GoodShapeshiftingEvilShapeshifting: The elite of Society use their shapeshifting powers in the most repulsively visible fashion possible, twisting their flesh like plasticine and merging their bodies with each other as they feed upon the poor. They're also [[NakedNutter extremely casual about stripping down]] while transforming. By contrast, the [[TokenHeroicOrc two heroic members of Society]] are much more discreet; in particular, Clarissa prefers to use her powers while at least wearing a ModestyBedsheet, and generally comes across as sexy and playful rather than inhumanly disturbing.
43	* GlasgowGrin: Bill's psychologist Dr. Cleveland sports one in the climax.
44	* HellishLA: Beverly Hills is home to the perverted, wealthy, cannibalistic "Society."
45	* HighClassCannibal: Billy's family, and the rest of their Beverly Hills elite, are revealed to be [[spoiler:a "variant" species who eat humans, or at least suck all the nutrients from their bodies. Billy was kidnapped from ordinary people and raised by a family of them for this express purpose; he is viewed as a "delicacy" for this reason.]]
46	* HistoricalInJoke: Judge Carter brags about the members of Society claiming descent from Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan in his speech introducing Ted before his fight with Billy. Ironically, Julius Caesar never left a line of descent as his own children died before having ones of their own, while conversly, Genghis Khan's dynasty had so many children that millions of people can trace their lineage back to him. He's essentially bragging about having extremely common descent as well as lying about descent from another person, further soldifying that the members of Society are nothing but dim, pretentious hedonists.
47	* HorrifyingTheHorror: After Billy kills Ted, the other Society members are suddenly terrified of him and fear to even touch him.
48	* HumanSubspecies: {{Implied\|Trope}}. When Bill calls the members of Society alien scum, they claim that they didn't come from outer space and that their LovecraftianSuperpower is simply the result of "impeccable breeding" -- however, one Society member claims that they've "been here as long as you", implying either a separate species native to Earth or a divergent evolutionary path. WordOfGod is that they are descendants of humans who were taken over by a parasite that turned them into a different species, and that shunting is how they add diversity to their excessively inbred bloodlines.
49	* IAmNotYourFather: Turns out, Billy was adopted, and for the sole purpose of eventually serving as a meal for a "shunt" after being {{gasli\|ghting}}t into making him and others question his sanity when the time came. This is what passes for a hilarious joke amidst the Society, highlighting just how utterly callous and depraved they are.
50	* IronicEcho: "Alien scum!"
51	* ItWasHereISwear: Martin tries to warn him about the suspicious stuff going on behind closed doors, and arranges to meet him at a location late at night. Bill finds the guy's murdered body in the trunk of an abandoned car, but when he returns with the police the evidence has already been removed. [[spoiler:Martin set it up himself, and he shows up unharmed the next day to fuck with Billy's mind even further]].
52	* JerkJock: Ferguson has the jock attitude down pat and turns out to be one of the evil Society members.
53	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Every member of the Society, Ted aside, gets away free and clear and will presumably go on preying on the lower classes.]]
54	* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler:On the other hand...the comic sequel ''Party Animal'' has Billy eventually take his revenge and completely eradicate the Beverly Hills division of Society by poisoning them at a Shunt.]]
55	* KillThePoor: In the climax, the upper class literally consume a member of the lower class by assimilating his body mass.
56	* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Strongly implied with Ted. Despite their shunting ability, getting turned inside out is more than Society can withstand physically. One member gasps, "He's ''congealing''!"]]
57	* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: [[spoiler:David.]]
58	* LiteralMetaphor: Society loves this trope. "I've got to pull myself together!" says Judge Carter when reforming from a shunt.
59	* LovecraftianSuperpower: The members of Society can distort and mutate their bodies to use as a weapon; growing elongated arms is one of the more mundane uses.
60	* {{Masquerade}}: Society, which claims that it's [[AncientConspiracy been around since the dawn of civilization]]. Turns out that the elites are actually ravenous, mutating, people-eating monsters.
61	* MsFanservice: Clarissa, who is introduced crossing her legs in front of Bill, letting him see her panties.
62	* MuggedForDisguise: Billy's friend Milo jacks a DirtyCop guarding the Whitney mansion and steals his jacket, hat and gun to sneak into the "shunting" party.
63	* NervesOfSteel: Milo proves himself to be quite a badass in the climax and keeps a surprisingly cool head when he bursts in on the nightmarish scene at the end. He immediately reacts with wide-eyed horror when he first sees the twisted mass of pulsing bodies, but quickly regains his composure and waits for an opportunity to jump in and save his buddy. He is later seen slapping away a guest's hand in annoyance when it tries to meld into his face.
64	* NoEnding: [[spoiler:Bill escapes with Clarissa and Milo after decking his "father", Ted is turned inside out, but Judge Carter merely quips that there's a new opening vacated by Ted's "death", and there's no evidence that Bill will ever be safe.]]
65	* OneWordTitle: ''Society''.
66	* OnlySaneMan: Dave Blanchard, the mousy teenager caught spying on Billy's sister in the beginning, turns out to be this: he's the only one who suspects something's up from the start and worries accordingly, and he comes close enough to necessitate his [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade "disappearance"]]. Tragically, this means he's subjected to being the victim of the "shunts" in the climax -- a ''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath nauseatingly]]'' horrible, prolonged fate for him.
67	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When [[spoiler:Ted is KilledOffForReal]], the other Society members drop their SmugSnake attitude.
68	* OverlyLongTongue: Ferguson at one point licks Bill with a massively oversized tongue.
69	* PaperTiger: The Society members' true power lies in their money and social position, because as grotesque and impressive as they are, their RubberMan powers come with at least ''one'' serious drawback that can be turned against them - hence why they prefer to torment people who are already too scared to fight back.
70	* ParentalIncest: Bill is horrified to discover that his parents have been engaging in orgies with his sister. [[spoiler:After he discovers that they're actually humanoid monsters who can distort their bodies, his sister([[BodyHorror 's face, protruding from both of their parents' torsos]]) even mockingly offers him to join in.]]
71	-->"If you have any Oedipal fantasies you'd like to indulge in, [[spoiler:Billy]], now's the time!"
72	* ProperlyParanoid: Dave Blanchard initially comes off as something of a flaky, nervous ConspiracyTheorist, but he turns out to be very much in the right. Unfortunately it's not enough to save him from a horrifically gruesome fate.
73	* PsychosexualHorror: This film mixes psychosexual imagery with visceral BodyHorror in its depiction of the rich, [[spoiler:who are eventually revealed to be a separate species living among humans that regularly performs "[[LovecraftianSuperpower shunts]]", grotesque orgies where members of high society twist themselves into horrifying networks of flesh and feast on the poor]].
74	* PublicDomainSoundtrack: "The Blue Danube" during the Shunting Party.
75	* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:Dave Blanchard is horrifically absorbed by the mob, and Billy very nearly dies while challenging Ted to a shunt, where he manages to kill him by inverting him, causing the members of Society to pause in shock and Milo and Clarissa bust him out, but not before he decks his "dad" in the face so hard he flies across the room. Society promises to track him and his friends down, but he escapes with them on his Jeep, leaving him time to plan how to take them down.]]
76	* ShapeshifterShowoffSession: In the finale, the villains who aren't busy with the massive flesh-absorbing orgy take great delight in screwing with Billy by demonstrating their shapeshifting powers: [[spoiler:Ted [[OverlyLongTongue extends his tongue]] and [[LecherousLicking gleefully licks Billy's face]]; Dr Cleveland shapes his head into a giant hand, then [[RubberMan stretches his right arm like elastic]] to grab at Billy; Nan reveals that she's removed her limbs and fused herself with various bits of Jim and Jenny - complete with Jenny's head suddenly erupting from her groin to menace Billy... and then the rest of Jim lurches out from under the bedsheets - with his face protruding from the cheeks of his ass.]]
77	* SheepInSheepsClothing: Clarissa. Creepy, seductive, [[EthicalSlut kinky]], and a member of Society who uses her powers to freak Billy out when they're getting it on. Turns out she's a total NiceGirl who doesn't seem to participate in the shunts, and when she falls in love with Billy she turns on the rest of Society.
78	* ShoutOut:
79	** The humming of a female voice over the credits and the opening shot of a big Gothic-style house (an apartment building, in the original's case) is a shout out to ''Film/RosemarysBaby''.
80	** Yuzna and Screaming Mad George used Creator/SalvadorDali's ''[[http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dali-autumnal-cannibalism-t01978 Autumn Cannibalism]]'' and ''[[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_Construction_with_Boiled_Beans_(Premonition_of_Civil_War) Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)]]'' as inspiration.
81	* TeamTitle: ''Society''.
82	* TokenGoodTeammate: Clarissa and her mom are this compared to the rest of Society. Clarissa freely indulges in her fucked-up BodyHorror powers as much as the rest of her kind, even using them to mess with Billy when they get it on. When the rest of Society decides to use Billy in the shunt, though, Clarissa refuses to partake and ends up turning against the rest of Society; likewise, when she sees her kid in danger, Clarissa's mom ''[[MamaBear smothers]]'' Ted.
83	* ToServeMan: A highly-unusual, disgusting and horrific version of it, as human victims of a "shunt" are slowly, painfully dissolved/absorbed into the writhing mass of fused/copulating Society members.
84	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Throughout the movie Bill keeps seeing horrific visions of people distorting their bodies in impossible ways, but a second later everything is back to normal. Subverted in the end when it turns out it was all real, leading to one of the [[BodyHorror most nauseating climaxes in the history of film]].
85	* TransformationDiscretionShot: Throughout the film, the TransformationHorror is brought to life through impressive prosthetics, but most of the actual transformations occur in cutaways.
86	** Early on, Jenny is having a shower when Billy enters the bathroom and sees that [[RubberMan her body has twisted around]] at an angle that leaves her breasts on the same side of her body as her ass... but when Billy opens the shower door for a closer look, Jenny is back to normal (and rather annoyed at the intrusion).
87	** Similarly, after sleeping with Clarissa, Billy is shocked to discover that his bedmate is somehow capable of meeting his gaze even though the lower half of her body is facing the opposite direction (though this time, [[ModestyBedsheet her naked torso is hidden by the blanket]]). Once again, he finds that Clarissa appears perfectly normal up close and [[{{Gaslighting}} is acting as if nothing happened]].
88	** In the climax, [[spoiler:Dr Cleveland]] shapes his head into a giant hand while the camera is focused on Billy's horrified reaction, eventually cutting back to reveal the fully-transformed head; however, the sight of his actual hand stretching out like elastic to grab Billy is shown in full.
89	** Finally, in the aftermath of the Shunt, the merged mass of flesh is seen collapsing out of view but not actually dividing back into its original participants - who are seen clambering back into shot a few seconds later.
90	* TransformationExhilaration: The perverted elite enjoy their shapeshifting powers, and take great pleasure in the process of transforming. In one early scene, Jenny [[RubberMan twists her body around]] so that her breasts face the same direction as the cheeks of her ass, moaning loudly as she does so. In another case, [[spoiler:Jenny and Nan]] are encountered in the aftermath of having merged themselves, and the latter demonstrates an almost post-coital satisfaction. Taken to its logical conclusion in the finale, when Society uses their powers to merge with an innocent victim in a grotesque orgy, moaning and shrieking throughout.
91	* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Or ugly ''woman's'' hot daughter, in the case of Mrs Carlyn and her daughter Clarissa.
92	* VillainousIncest:
93	** Jenny constantly seems to be on the brink of coming onto, or actively flirting with, her brother Billy. [[spoiler:She is, but he isn't her brother.]]
94	** Billy is horrified when he hears [[spoiler:Jenny apparently having sex with ''both'' of their parents]] on Dave's recording.
95	* VisualPun: The poster takes the idea of "the mask you wear in public" to a BodyHorror LiteralMetaphor.
96	* WormInAnApple: In the opening, Billy takes a bite out of an apple while in his therapist's office -- only to find the apparently pristine fruit rotten and writhing with literal worms. As it happens, this is an early bit of foreshadowing that [[BodyHorror something very nasty]] is going on [[CrapsaccharineWorld behind the polished facade of Beverly Hills]].
97	* ZipMeUp: Jenny asks Billy to zip up her coming-out party dress. Her skin pulses.
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Context Film / Society