Suitable Flesh (2023) - Movie Review

What do you get when a director who’ll try anything once teams with one of the best genre casts in horror to adapt one of H.P. Lovecraft’s best long form tales?

A movie so kickass that it would make Brian Yuzna blush.

Let’s discuss.

Suitable Flesh is a 2023 cosmic body-horror film brought to us by director Joe Lynch and legendary writer Dennis Paoli. Both men have given us good movies, but Paoli is in his own class altogether.

Oh You’ve never heard of him?

Well… Have you heard of Reanimator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, or Dagon? Ya know, the best Lovecraft adaptations out there? While Stuart Gordon got all the spotlight, Paoli is just as responsible for those classic films. Working with Gordon, he helped shaped the modern cosmic horror genre. He added the humor to the Cthulhu Mythos to ushered Lovecraft into the mainstream.

He’s again teamed with an edge lord director in Lynch who you would probably recognize as an actor and voice actor, but he’s also put up some gems from the director’s chair including Knights of Badassdom and 2017’s Mayhem.

Together the men deliver a serviceable adaptation of the great Lovecraft tale, The Thing on the Doorstep. Which is my personal favorite Lovecraft story. It is widely derided by the Lovecraft “Experts,” but from reading the criticisms from the likes of S.T. Joshi and others, who call it a poor story—It’s apparent to me that the story just isn’t highbrow enough for those erudite few. Even Lovecraft himself hated it, which is evidence in my favor. Most of the great stories a writer completes is inwardly despised.

***RANT BEGIN***

Look at 1974’s Carrie. Stephen King threw it in a trashcan, only to have his spouse save it and convince him it was brilliant.

How many great stories have been found locked in an old desk, only to become something great?

With The Thing on the Doorstep,Lovecraft unwittingly crafted one of the first transgender horror tales. It’s also one of the first body swapping horror stories coming from the United States. It’s often been ripped off and copied by other famous authors like Robert Heinlein and Philip K. Dick. You can also see its influence in films like 2020’s Possessor and 2005’s The Skeleton Key.

And yes, Lovecraft didn’t invent the idea of body swapping—as myths and legends about the idea of transference go back through the beliefs of Voodoo and even farther back to the ancient Babylon. However, Lovecraft used his talent for the mundane to bring the idea to modernity.

And while most body swapping tales focus on 2 people of the same gender—Lovecraft had the villain of this piece swap bodies and genders… In 1933.

Let that sink in…

1933 when the missionary position was the only legal way to have sex, when genders and races were fully segregated, and he puts out a story about a gender swapping warlock.

Now, anyone who reads this page knows I am a moderate in almost all fashions and I often praise the diversity of the horror genre in general. Diversity of thought is immensely important to the growth of community.

I do not like the Far Left Woke Cancellation mob ruining people’s lives purely for having different opinions and beliefs than what they agree with.

I also do not like the old/new guard of the Far Right, who see everything as a tool of the Left and put down anything that has any queer themes or elements.

I feel like the old guard of the Lovecraft Community fall somewhere in the middle. They want the financial gain of bringing in new members of the community, but not if those new members don’t agree with their views on the mythos. I’m assuming those people will hate on this movie.

*** RANT OVER ***

The film focuses on Dr. Elizabeth Derby, a beautiful woman who has reached a crossroads in her life. She’s got a great career, a handsome, loving husband, and a comfortable life in the suburbs. However, she’s unfulfilled, disinterested. Her clients are boring, milquetoast people with mundane problems. Until a handsome young man forces his way inside and begs her for help. She’s excited, as the boy’s case and diagnosis could be her key to a bestselling book and she’s aroused by the handsome, muscular body in which his illness resides. Little does she know that the boy’s crazy ramblings have a basis in truth. A dark will is at play and it’s got its eyes focused directly on Elizabeth. Will she find a way to stem evil’s rising tide or will she be swept beneath the waves? Find out on tonight’s feature, Suitable Flesh.

Anyone who knows me, knows that Heather Graham has been on my celebrity crush list since she broke out in 1997’s Boogie Nights. I will watch anything with her in it, and she’s always great, and there’s no difference here. She’s always had fantastic facial expressions and it was so much fun to get to watch her shift between the villain and the heroine.

So yeah, I’m still crushing.

It helps that my second longest crush of all-time appears in the film alongside her. Barbara Crampton turns in another great performance. No woman embodies the 90’s Lovecraft universe more than Crampton whose turn in Reanimator was the sexual awakening for many men and women that only accelerated in From Beyond. She’s one of those rare actresses who stayed mostly natural, and is all the sexier for it. She has transitioned from playing the scream queen to being the GILF authority figure and she’s just as brilliant as she’s always been.

Then there’s the equally strong male leads.

Judah Lewis continues his rise as the River Phoenix of horror. His turns in The Babysitter series, I See You, and Summer of ‘84 are proof of that. It’s been amazing to watch him grow and spread his creative wings. He gets to showcase his increased range in this film where he plays all sides. He plays a total of 4 characters in this film and knocks it out of the park.

Then of course, there’s the man, the myth, the Dr. Stegman—Bruce Davidson. He’s one of the greatest villain actors in film and television history and as we saw recently in Rob Zombie’s Lords of Salem, he’s a fantastic hero as well.

In a film where the actors are forced to bare all, physically and emotionally, everyone excelled.

The film is sexy, grimy, and gross. It’s also a fast moving, well paced slow burn.

Which sounds like an oxymoron, but hear me out.

The filmmaking at play here is top notch. It’s a low budget picture that utilizes old school technique and practical effects to make itself look like a million bucks.

Lynch is the master of making something out of nothings and he’s done it again.

Please support this film.

It’s streaming exclusively on Shudder.