Doin’ it for Stu: Joe Lynch’s Naked Theater of “Suitable Flesh!” [Review]
Can you ever go wrong with a retro-style poster?
Watching “Oppenheimer” in a packed theater was one of the more shocking movie moments of 2023. Not because of how the display of Cillian Murphy’s hubris will kill us all someday, but because of his first sex scene with Florence Pugh. It was short and tame, yet people gasped like they just realized Bruce Willis was dead. It was as if this 17+ audience had forgotten movies used to have sex scenes. But Joe Lynch, he with a recall that rivals Pepperidge Farms, remembers. His new film “Suitable Flesh” is a throwback love letter to the 1990’s by being both an erotic thriller and a cosmic horror film. This isn’t to say we were all perverts in the ‘90s, but moviegoers in general were used to watching a nude scene or two in major R-rated releases. Paul Verhoeven, the daimyo of erotic thrillers, peppered them in, while still serving the story instead of descending into porn (while I never cared for them one way or the other, why as there so much nudity in “Starship Troopers?”) Lynch walks the line between Verhoeven and the late great Stuart Gordon (who allegedly pitched Lynch to direct this before he passed) in creating a body-hopping horror film with blood, galore.
Judah Lewis and (sort of) Bruce Davison really promising on the “galore” part.
Based on H.P. Lovecraft's short story “The Thing on the Doorstep,” “Suitable Flesh” stars Heather Graham as Dr. Elizabeth Derby, a psychiatrist who encounters Asa (Judah Lewis), a prospective patient claiming to have personality disorder. If only. Asa seems to be possessed by an unnamed entity that’s as sex-starved as it is deadly. Elizabeth finds herself pin-balling between bodies as the unnamed entity tries to take over hers and sleep with her hapless husband (the always-dependable Johnathan Scheach). Also, of course, to kill people. Barbara Crampton pulls double duty as the film’s producer, as Dr. Upton, Elizabeth’s friend and confidant. Her presence also pays tribute to Gordon’s “Re-Animator, “From Beyond,” both of which featured her as the protagonist similar to who Graham plays. Lynch loves his homages.
Admit it: you didn’t know this was Heather Graham at first.
Did I mention he loves the 1990’s? Here, he aims to emulate the films you’d find on Friday nights on HBO, most of which never got theatrical releases, but were memorable all the same. You might’ve even found one directed by Stuart Gordon and written by Dennis Paoli like “The Dentist” and “Dagon,” another Lovecraft adaptation. The sex scenes, and there are more than a few, never seem too gratuitous, despite the repeated saxophone motif. We’re in a time before “True Blood,” where the ceiling fans revolve slowly. Graham wisely never winks at us with her performance as a character realizing there really are more things in heaven and earth than in her philosophy. Well, maybe not heaven…
Director Joe Lynch, striving to channel “The Ice Pirates.”
Though dark and gross, “Suitable Flesh” is made with Lynch’s trademark zeal. He wants to share his love of the ‘craft (sorry, not sorry) with the audience, which can be infectious as the entity itself. The film may be too much for some people, but he and his crew (along with “Glorious” cinematographer David Matthews) have made something you won’t soon forget.
At one point, a character who’s covered in the red stuff looks directly at the camera and asks “too much?” Maybe for some, Joe, but for most of us, it’s just right.
In theaters and everywhere you rent movies October 27th.
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