‘Suitable Flesh’ Requires a Specific Wavelength to Get the Most Out of It, but Once You Get Tuned In, It’s Impossible to Tune Out

To get on the same wavelength as Joe Lynch Suitable Meat – which admittedly isn’t the easiest thing in the world for everyone – you need to understand its origins and inspiration, which immediately makes the gnarly hybrid of body horror, erotic thriller, and possession story much more meaningful.

When filmmaker and superhero Stuart Gordon passed away in 2020, he wanted to continue his Lovecraftian legacy that saw him partner with writer Dennis Paoli and producer Brian Yuzna to deliver. Re-Animator, From Over thereand Dagon, the first two of which starred Barbara Crampton. The gang is almost back together, but the pair of hands that Gordon intended back to the so-called “MiskatonicVerse” has found a more suitable pair of hands – no portfolio at all.

As well as creating a strong hand for himself at genre-bending storytelling through things like Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, Knights of Badassdom, Eternaland swampsLynch is also a lifelong fan of Gordon’s work and became friendly with the director before his death, making him the perfect fit to carry out the original vision and intent of Lovecraft’s short story. The Thing on the Doorstep kicking and screaming into the modern era.

As a result, Suitable Meat it feels straight out of the mid-1980s in terms of style, score, and aesthetic, ensuring that Gordon is proud of the madness that Lynch unleashes during a cavalcade of gore, sex, jet-black comedy, and sax solos on back long overdue during love scenes. Deranged, but in a conscious way that stops short of winking at his audience, there is already a strong chance of becoming a midnight madness staple.

Heather Graham leads the ensemble as Dr. Elizabeth Derby, enjoying a wonderful life of a respectable job as a psychiatrist, a loving husband through Edward Johnathon Schachech, a tight friendship with Crampton’s colleague Daniella Upton, and hardly any issues to talk about. personal or professional level. At least that’s how it was, with the opening scene using a framing device that shows us Elizabeth is institutionalized before explaining how she got there.

It all stems from Judah Lewis’s Asa Waite, a troubled patient who she believes suffers from a personality disorder. Of course given Suitable MeatIn the beginning, that’s not the case, and it won’t be long before hell breaks loose when body-swapping shenanigans start to wreak havoc on the world, all in full swings of obsession, unbridled loneliness, and approach delirious about consumption. his insanity proudly on his sleeve for all to see.

Movie as maniac as Suitable Meat it takes a solid central performance to anchor events and bring things together, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this is Graham’s best work in years. Nuance may be a foreign term to everything about the film, but still the actor impresses you with a turn that is equal parts professionally curious, socially repressed, socially besieged, and then fueled by a destructive demonic spirit, which is not. It’s not an easy thing to do over the course of 99 minutes.

Fortunately, she is up against a scene partner that will prove to be more than a match in Lewis, with the Chronicles of Christmas and The Babysitter star all grown up and walking the difficult trope to deliver anywhere between one and three different wild personalities in the space of one scene, depending on the body in which the diverse force is at any given time. Put the two together – and the age difference between the 53-year-old Graham and his early 20s counterpart, as the “sexy sax” builds – and Suitable Meat that it thrives on its solid foundation of performance.

Of course, character studies and interpersonal drama are nowhere near the top of the priority list, not when Lynch is channeling the spirit of Gordon’s blood-splattered back catalog and a cavalcade of other influences that range from straight-up hard-boiled noir. -up softcore, but that’s all just part of its very unique charms, which even manages to extend to a sly commentary on gender dynamics in both the bedroom and the workplace.

If you’ve never heard Suitable Meat and someone told you that it was the remastered version of Gordon’s flick was found, then you want to believe it completely and utterly, which is about the highest compliment that can be paid based on its origin, construction, and ultimately executed.