To get on the same wavelength as Joe Lynch’s Suitable Flesh – which admittedly might not be the easiest thing in the world for everyone – you need to understand its origins and inspirations, which instantly makes a lot more sense of the gnarly hybrid of body horror, erotic thriller, and possession story.
When filmmaker and all-round hero Stuart Gordon passed away in 2020, he was looking to continue his Lovecraftian legacy that saw him partner with writer Dennis Paoli and producer Brian Yuzna to deliver Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Dagon, the first two of which starred Barbara Crampton. The gang is almost back together, but Gordon’s planned return to what’s been dubbed the “MiskatonicVerse” has found itself in a more than suitable – no pun intended – pair of hands.
As well as proving himself a dab hand at genre-bending storytelling through the likes of Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, Knights of Badassdom, Everly, and Mayhem, Lynch is also a lifelong fan of Gordon’s work and became friendly with the director before his death, making him the perfect fit to execute the original vision and intention of dragging Lovecraft’s short story The Thing on the Doorstep kicking and screaming into the modern era.
As a result, Suitable Flesh feels like it’s been ripped straight out of the mid-1980s when it comes to style, score, and aesthetic, ensuring that Gordon has been done proud by the unhinged madness that Lynch delivers in a cavalcade of blood, sex, jet-black comedy, and long-overdue return of saxophone solos during love scenes. Deranged, but in a knowing fashion that stops short of winking at its audience, it’s is already in with a strong chance of becoming a midnight madness staple.
Heather Graham heads up the ensemble as Dr. Elizabeth Derby, enjoying an idyllic existence that involves a respectable job as a psychiatrist, a loving husband through Johnathon Schaech’s Edward, a solid friendship with Crampton’s colleague Daniella Upton, and barely no issues to speak of on a personal or professional level. At least, that’s how it used to be, with the opening scene utilizing a framing device that shows us Elizabeth institutionalized before explaining how she got there.
It all stems from Judah Lewis’ Asa Waite, a troubled patient she believes is suffering from a personality disorder. Obviously given Suitable Flesh‘s origins, that isn’t quite the case, and it doesn’t take long before all hell breaks loose as body-swapping shenanigans begin ruining countless lives, all peppered with undercurrents of obsession, unrestrained lust, and a delirious approach to wearing its insanity proudly on the sleeve for all to see.
A movie as maniacal as Suitable Flesh requires a solid central performance to anchor proceedings and hold things together, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say this is Graham’s best work in years. Nuance might have been an alien term to everything about the film, but the actress still reels you in with a turn that’s equal parts professionally curious, socially repressed, societally overlooked, and then fueled by the spirit of a havoc-wreaking demon, which isn’t an easy thing to do over the course of 99 minutes.
Fortunately, she’s up against a scene partner that proves to be more than a match in Lewis, with the Christmas Chronicles and The Babysitter star all grown up and walking the tricky tightrope of delivering anywhere between one and three wildly different personalities in the space of a single scene, dependent on which body the malevolent force is occupying at any given time. Put the two of them together – and the age difference between the 53 year-old Graham and her early-20s counterpart is played up as the “sexy sax” builds – and Suitable Flesh thrives on its solid performative foundations.
Of course, character studies and interpersonal drama isn’t anywhere near the top of the priority list, not when Lynch is intentionally channeling the spirit of Gordon’s blood-splattered back catalogue and a cavalcade of other influences that range from hard-boiled noir to straight-up softcore, but that’s all just part of its very unique charms, which even manages to extend to sly commentary on gender dynamics in both the bedroom and the workplace.
If you’d never heard of Suitable Flesh and somebody told you it was the remastered version of an uncovered Gordon flick, then you’d completely and utterly believe it, which is about the highest compliment that can be paid based on its origins, construction, and ultimately execution.
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The spirit of Stuart Gordon is alive and well in ‘Suitable Flesh,’ with Joe Lynch picking up the baton and delivering both an ode to his inspiration and a riotous horror comedy in its own right.
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