A well-paced and utterly bizarre horror film with plenty of black comedy and a finale which is unforgettable once seen, this is probably Brian Yuzna's most controversial movie and one of his best along with it. It's certainly unlike any other movie I've seen and therefore deserves points for originality. The film starts off like a typical conspiracy thriller as our young lead Billy Warlock starts to discover some unpleasant things about his family. So far, so good, you might think, but then things become a little weirder as bizarre sex acts are hinted at and Warlock witnesses people twisting their bodies into impossible positions. The suspense thickens and the plot becomes taut as people begin to die and Warlock finds himself mixed up in a far-reaching plot and then WHAM!, Yuzna hits you with an utterly disgusting - yet fascinating - finale which is unlike anything ever before witnessed on film.

Although this film is awash with mucus, slime, and perverted sexual situations, the heady helping of dark comedy stops it from being too overwhelming and keeps it entertaining and hilarious in parts. Special effects genius Screaming Mad George contributes probably his finest effects work to date with the "shunting party" at the film's close, which has some graphically nasty gore but mostly just plain yuckiness to recommend it, an extended sequence so surreal that I'm sure Salvadore Dali would be impressed if he was alive to see it. Billy Warlock rises above his BAYWATCH heritage and proves to be a likable male lead and the rest of the supporting cast put in commendably straight performances, up until the end that is when everything takes a bizarre comedic turn for the worse. Utterly watchable and quite unique, this stands true as a pinnacle of cinematic weirdness that hasn't really been matched since in terms of vision and imagination.

The teenager Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) feels misfit with his parents and his sister Jenny Whitney (Patrice Jennings). When his sister's boyfriend David Blanchard (Tim Bartell) bugs his family, he shows the disturbing tapes to Bill showing incest and a weird society. When Blanchard dies in a car accident, Bill decides to investigate his family and find a scary truth.

"Society" is a disturbing movie of Brian Yuzna, where the fight of classes is presented in a very original way. The surrealistic story could be much better, but it is an interesting political and economical view of Marx theories, with the upper dominant classes literally and explicitly "eating "the lower classes. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Sociedade dos Amigos do Diabo" ("The Society of the Friends of the Devil")

Note: On 18 July 2017 I saw this film again.

Pun very much intended ... which is a recurring theme in the dialog here too - when people talk about contributing to society ... which gets even more apparent, when you get to the completely over the top end third of the movie. But let's not get ahead over ourselves, even if you may already know more about this than I did before watching it.

Some of it may be from the cover or pictures you've seen or any summary you have read ... and yet still ... it is something completely different watching this mayhem unfold ... even if some effects may not have aged as well (the two bodies on a bed work well I think) - this still is incredible work ... it may even give you nightmares or make you want to puke! Even if the director himself is not too fond of certain things anymore ... and he isn't wrong when saying that nowadays you could have done a lot of the effects with CGI and it would be more easy for him and maybe even more believable ... but I like the "real" effects the movie uses! And I like the performances too ... not an easy thing to make the actors go all out in certain scenes.

Almost a shame the movie did not make a dent back when it was released ... but it is acknowledged nowadays ... not just by Empire Magazine as the director notes - unsure of how proud he should be about that. I'd say very proud, but then again I might not be the best judge of those things. Anyway, if you are not too squeamish and like 80s horror movies ... well what are you waiting for?