"Society" is an obscure 1989 comedy that predicted Trump and Epstein

"Society" is about a Beverly Hills teenager who suspects his elite parents are involved in an evil cult.

Earlier this month, I learned that Nate Marks — a Pennsylvania comedian beloved on the Poconos circuit, and one of my best friends — committed suicide. Because he introduced me to this movie, “Society,” I’m dedicating this review to him. I urge you to read the one film review we co-authored, which discussed “Shakes the Clown.”

On the surface, Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock) has an ideal childhood. He lives with his parents and sister in a beautiful Beverly Hills mansion, is popular and successful in school and seems to have a bright future. Yet as he confides to his therapist Dr. Cleveland (Ben Slack), he does not trust his family. In a traditional domestic comedy, Whitney’s anxieties would be a manifestation of growing pains, a coming of age crisis in which normal and healthy self-doubt emerges in a bizarre psychic outgrowth.

Instead, “Society” reveals that Whitney’s concerns are correct. I dare not spoil exactly how, but suffice to say that anyone disgusted by President Trump’s connection with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will find much to digest in “Society.” Even if you don’t believe that Trump, Epstein and other super-rich elites regularly engage in depraved sexual misconduct, “Society” still contains many joys as a thriller/horror/body comedy.

Directed by Brian Yuzna and co-written by Woody Keith and Rick Fry, “Society” works for four major reasons.

1. The script is intelligent. Whitney is depicted as a realistic teenager, smart and brave but still immature and emotional. As he confronts his increasingly bizarre situation, Whitney and the people around him all behave “normally,” even though we and they are increasingly aware that malevolent revelations are right around the corner. In the hands of lesser filmmakers, “Society” would have been either obnoxiously over-the-top or so subtle that all meaning is lost. Yuzna, Keith and Fry are skilled in taking this volatile material and creating a lively, explosive result that holds up more than three decades later. (Nate Marks wanted me to see “Society,” he explained at the time, specifically for this reason.)

2. The special effects are incredible. More than once, I’ve marveled at how practically-created special effects from the 1980s and early 1990s were more convincing than the CGI-induced monstrosities we see everywhere today. (My dear friend, the late Nate Marks, specifically praised '“Society” to me for this reason.)

3. It was panned by a critic whose review has aged like neglected milk. “Society is an extremely pretentious, obnoxious horror film that unsuccessfully attempts to introduce kinky sexual elements into extravagant makeup effects,” wrote the staff of Variety in 1989. One wonders how many of them identified with the elites in the film and therefore felt personally attacked. (I suspect Nate would have shared my curiosity on this point.)

4. “The rich have always sucked off low-class shit like you!” Everything about this line is epic in the context of what happens in “Society,” a point that the late great Nate Marks made to me emphatically when we first viewed “Society” at his behest.

If you want to watch a gross horror movie in the finest cinematic satirical tradition, stretching from “They Live” to “The Substance,” I highly recommend “Society.”

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Back Seat Socialism

Back Seat Socialism is a column by Matthew Rozsa, who has been a professional journalist for more than 13 years. Currently, he is writing a book for Beacon Press, “Neurosocialism,” which argues that autistic people like the author struggle under capitalism, and explains how neurosocialism - the distinct anticapitalist perspective one develops by living as a neurodiverse individual - can be an important organizing principle for the left.