Suitable Flesh.

Review #2470: Suitable Flesh.

Cast: 

Heather Graham (Dr. Elizabeth Derby), Judah Lewis (Asa Waite), Bruce Davison (Ephraim Waite), Johnathon Schaech (Edward Derby), Barbara Crampton (Dr. Daniella Upton), Graham Skipper (Pathologist), Brett Newton (Professor Fisk), Chris McKenna (Crawley), J. D. Evermore (Detective Ledger), and Ann Mahoney (Susan) Directed by Joe Lynch (#2469 - Mayhem)

Review:

"I think part of it stems from I grew up watching a lot of horror movies -- and again, this is just my kind of cinematic fetish -- I like to be affected by watching something. I don't like to just complacently let something wash over me, whether it's watching Airplane! or Top Secret where you can't help but laugh at the absurdity of everything that's happening on screen, to A Serbian Film, where you can't help but go [cringes] "Ohhhh, ugh, my god." There's something about the kind of films I grew up watching and still watch today that push the limits because I like to be provoked. I like to see where that line is as a viewer and go "Yeah, go ahead, push it over." I want to be challenged. I like cinema that challenges me."

You might remember that Dennis Paoli wrote a handful of films with Stuart Gordon to varying success. Paoli had been friends with Stuart Gordon since high school with a shared interest in films and reading. Naturally this became a fit for Gordon's Re-Animator (1985), which was based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Paoli served as a co-writer on From Beyond (1986), another loose adaptation of Lovecraft. Paoli worked on a handful of scripts for movies in the years that followed, such as The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), Body Snatchers (1993) and Dagon (2001). Gordon and Paoli had planned to work together on an adaptation of Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep, but it never got all the way off the ground before Gordon died in 2020. The resulting remembrances of Gordon led to Paoli and Barbara Crampton reconnecting and talking about scripts, as she was now a producer. He brought it over to Crampton, who in turned showed it to Lynch. Lynch had an interesting idea that intrigued Paoli and others: gender-swapping the leads. The film had a limited release in 2023 before getting onto the video/streaming circuit.

Admittedly, I do sometimes check the rating of a film by other folks around the Internet to get a gauge on how people view something because, well, it never hurts to check. For whatever reason, this is apparently one of those "love it or hate it" type of flick, and I guess the viewpoint doesn't help matters, since Lynch wanted to make a movie where the lead character visualizes the movie as if it was a "late night 10 o'clock erotic thriller from the '80s or '90s". If you go in thinking the movie will just be a Gordon pastiche, well, you might not get all you want, particularly with the effects, but I don't really see a problem with that here. This is a body-swapping movie that wants to ask what all the fuss is about in feeling around new things that, proudly or not, would be fit for the "Skinemax" comparison...or an offbeat Freaky Friday with a few camera spins. Honestly, I dug the movie, mostly because there is something to have fun with in the mayhem of body politics with a demon that likes to jump around for the sake of trying new things (and also smoke) at the expense of people's lives. In that sense, Graham and Lewis have a bit of a challenge in making the swap game interesting beyond just doing the "how to prove one isn't who they are" thing. Each approach it in different ways, naturally (a tiny bit of nudity comes from seeing Graham and maybe a tiny bit of kinky nature). A good chunk of it could be considered a "midlife crisis" when it comes to Graham's character, as if writing books and having to hear people prattle on in therapy while being married just can't compare to maybe, just maybe, having a bit on the side. Graham makes this trouble work, I can believe that one could be tempted (and then, well, horrified) by a new presence among the doldrums of life. When it comes to the scenes of swapping, she makes it quite charming to actually see engage with the new self (yes, the demon craves flesh and doesn't really care who it is, which I guess makes it a greedy bastard more than just bisexual). In the torment of what is and what isn't quite there in the body, Lewis makes a worthy performer to display some of the charm and some of the strangeness in trying to adapt around, mainly because the chemistry between him and Graham is more the fact that he is just something new rather than because he's God's gift to talking to women. Admittedly, it is nice to see a few moments with Davison commit to the bit of playing a hungry demon needing a nibble for a time, and Crampton makes a capable presence of going with the growing absurdity of events without being swept away by it. Some might think it a bit hokey with its body swapping and maybe not nearly as gooey as it could be, but I had a fun time with the movie, mostly because I thought it was a pretty amusing movie in seeing the perils of basically a midlife crisis explode in your face. I liked its sleazy nature, right down to its ending and would say that even if it isn't for everybody, it is nice to have a movie as weird as this come around every now and then.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

And so ends the 7th rendition of Halloween: The Week After. Nine reviews over the course of those seven days went mostly without a hitch. The horror season will be a fun one in 2026 with all of the runner-ups we had in October/November. We'll see how the rest of the month goes and beyond. 

Some of the movies we missed in the 38 days of horror: 

The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), Frankenstein Unbound, Nightmares, Inn of the Damned, The Legacy (1978), The Guardian, Daughters of Darkness, The Uncanny, Torture Garden, The Company of Wolves, A Taste of Blood, Scream Blacula Scream, Monkey Shines, Basket Case, Full Circle (1977), Nightbreed, Innocent Blood, What Lies Beneath, He Knows You're Alone, Schlock (1973), Asylum (1972), The Monster Squad, People Toys, The Brood, The Descent Part 2, Messiah of Evil, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)

Quartermass 2, Lust for a Vampire (1971), Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, Paranormal Activity, Ring 0, The Funhouse, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, The Evil Dead (2013), Child's Play 3, Critters, Ginger Snaps, Possession (1981), Repulsion, The Omen II, One Missed Call, Van Helsing, Toxic Avenger II, The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Insidious II, Scream 2, Phantasm II, Hellraiser II, Ravenous, and Drag Me to Hell.

Be ready for Halloween: The Week After - Crazy Eights in 2026.

Maggie.

Review #1572: Maggie.

Cast:

Arnold Schwarzenegger (Wade Vogel), Abigail Breslin (Maggie Vogel), Joely Richardson (Caroline Vogel), Douglas M. Griffin (Sheriff Ray Pierce), J. D. Evermore (Holt), Rachel Whitman Groves (Bonnie), Jodie Moore (Dr. Vern Kaplan), Bryce Romero (Trent), and Raeden Greer (Allie) Directed by Henry Hobson.

Review:

“When I read it, I knew I had to do it. It is more vulnerable than any role I have played, more real, more emotional. You’re used to seeing me play the ubermensch, the action hero bullets can’t seem to hit. In Maggie, I am the everyman … dealing with the most basic concerns – protecting his family.”

When you have been the favorite in terms of delivering entertainment in action or comedy for so long, one wonders what to expect from a turn to drama from someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perhaps he hasn't been the idea of a great actor, but he certainly found a way from bodybuilding to acting that has made him a memorable presence in the action film genre for numerous decades. Even when winning multiple times with bodybuilding contests like Mr. Olympia, he wanted to act. He made his debut in Hercules in New York (1970), but it was the documentary Pumping Iron (1977) and Conan the Barbarian (1982) that ultimately helped him on his way to recognition as at least a man worthy of gritting it out each time. There is a reason he has found himself as one of the most prominent features of action cinema and Movie Night as a whole, and it is because of easy it can be to like seeing him on screen. Now, years after having put acting aside to serve as Governor of California, here he is in a different kind of genre for once - drama, with a film fittingly released the same year he starred in trying to hone back the action past with Terminator Genisys (2015, which is definitely of a different quality). This is the first feature film for Hobson, who certainly had his own interesting way to filmmaking. He was a graduate of Royal College of Art, and he soon honed his craft (a designer for title and credit sequences for films and awards shows. The writer, named John Scott 3 (no, not a typo), was an engineer. The script had attracted attention, but it was the storyboards that Hobson created to help develop his thoughts behind each scene that helped in convincing Schwarzenegger to express interest in the feature, which he would also help produce.

So here we are, watching a film about a man having to deal with watching his daughter suffer through sickness that cannot be cured and will have to make a decision on exactly what to do with her before she ultimately dies. It just so happens that a tale of parental agony is told through the layers of a zombie film, one that tries to bank on its performances rather than through machinations of action. It is a competently average film, buoyed by Schwarzengger and Breslin, one that rides hard on the heft they can lend in drama that smooth over most of its problems within pacing alongside its inevitability factor. It goes with a touch of quiet sullen passion that rewards those who like drawn-out drama while perhaps not fitting the interest for those wanting further in horror. In other words, if it weren't for these two actors at the helm, this might not have turned out the way that it does. After all, this film had just a limited release (my least favorite kind of release) by Lionsgate, and it almost seems suited for a short play with how it utilizes a limited setting and characters more than anything, but here we are. It makes a decent experience at 95 minutes mainly because it doesn't threaten to go longer than it should, particularly when it comes to getting around to effects usage (cheap but serviceable). Schwarzenegger does just alright with what he is offered here - no big posturing, no winks aside, just a role with some quiet agony that he reaches out for with useful effectiveness for anguish. Breslin plays a worthy title character performance, moving along with her own inner and outer struggle as someone watching themselves decay that makes sobering moments between the two of them have some well-drawn effect, as one could expect for a movie that relies on building itself on these two with the inevitable. Richardson and Griffin show up in parts, and each are okay, although really it is those smaller moments involving tragedy that mean most, such as a bonfire between healthy and infected friends, or a friendly doctor advising between quarantine or a tougher option in doing what needs to be done themselves. On the whole, this should be a better film when it comes to building drama (its ending of choice will either reach you in poignancy or leave one cold), but I found it just tender enough to seem worthwhile enough for a watch. It isn't the best feature for either Schwarzenegger or Breslin, but it serves as an interesting curiosity in each of their history, and in some ways that might be more than enough to recommend it.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.