Joe Lynch adds another movie to his delightfully eccentric oeuvre with his latest directorial offering, Suitable Flesh. Part psychosexual workplace drama, part Lovecraftian nightmare, the movie features a never-better Heather Graham in her first major horror role since From Hell. Much like Alicia Silverstone, who’s made a recent swerve into darker fare with the likes of The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Perpetrator, Graham is visibly chomping at the bit to sink her teeth into a meatier role that, while it still plays off her innate sex appeal, also gives the prolific performer plenty of room to show off what she can do when is allowed to get a little muddier (both literally and figuratively). The fact she spends much of the run-time playing off the legendary Barbara Crampton–also enjoying a well-deserved resurgence since You’re Next–only sweetens the deal.
In fact, the Re-Animator star’s face is the first we see onscreen, alongside fellow horror fan favorite Graham Skipper. Looming over a fresh corpse, the camera positioned seemingly in the body bag beneath them, the two have a casual conversation about what really happened to the poor fellow. He’s crucial to the plot but Lynch doesn’t show us the body, or clarify whose it is, for quite a while. It’s worth noting that both Crampton and Skipper have ties to the Re-Animator universe so watching them trade barbs in a morgue is a devilishly nerdy little treat. Likewise, Suitable Flesh screenwriter Dennis Paoli penned the script for that classic movie too.
Speaking of which, the fact much of the action takes place in the Miskatonic Institute in Arkham, Massachusetts, lets us know what kind of movie we’re in for (both are details taken from “The Thing on the Doorstep,” Lovecraft’s short story on which Suitable Flesh is based). Thankfully, Lynch doesn’t overplay his hand or rely on meaningless fan service. He’s confident enough by now to let the frequently wacky material speak for itself. Graham is Dr. Elizabeth Derby (a gender swap from the source material), a successful psychiatrist with a loving husband, great home, and lots of fancy clothes to wear to her various appointments. Crampton plays her best friend and colleague, to whom Elizabeth regales the story of how she got to be locked up in Miskatonic after previously working to help folks with mental health issues herself.
Elizabeth’s problems begin when a young man named Asa (Judah Lewis) storms into her office and demands to speak to her about so-called out of body experiences that feel increasingly life-threatening. The psychiatrist quickly becomes obsessed not just with Asa’s plight but with the sexy guy himself and, one fateful night, she succumbs to her desires and sleeps with him. But in doing so Elizabeth seemingly leaves herself open to some kind of demon that hops from body to body and is understandably sick of inhabiting Asa’s ailing father’s (Bruce Davison). When the opportunity presents itself to take over a woman’s body instead, it jumps at the chance, leading to a complete personality change for Elizabeth and a body swap between herself and Asa that both struggle to pull off, for obvious reasons.
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Suitable Flesh has plenty of fun, stylistic flourishes–including the classic blood splattering on the camera shot that’s quickly becoming ubiquitous but is still very welcome regardless–that fit nicely with the general off-the-wall vibes, alongside a score that gets louder and wilder as the wheels start to fall spectacularly off Elizabeth’s life. In any other movie it’d be too much but here, it fits perfectly. Gender-swapping the two main characters was a smart move because it allows Graham and Crampton to establish a dynamic that sells the movie’s more outlandish moments. It’s a joy watching them play off each other, the actors sharing a lovely, natural rapport that makes what happens to Elizabeth hit that much harder. Suitable Flesh isn’t an especially deep movie–the recurring warning, “If he does it again, it’s forever” is both too simplistic and too opaque to have any real impact–but it doesn’t necessarily need to be.
The strong, committed performances–Lewis is a pro at switching between mewling emo and cocksure cad–and well-placed practical violence are enough to keep audiences in their seats, and it moves along at a decent clip too, barely pausing for breath once things kick off proper. There’s plenty of great blood, guts, and gore to enjoy while the demon jumps from body to body. One sequence involving a character being rammed with a car while the driver uses the reversing camera to keep him in view throughout, is cool, unique, and crucially new. Much of Suitable Flesh is like that, even when the movie wears its influences on its sleeve.
As a result, Suitable Flesh ends the only way it really can, in a satisfying but ever so slightly predictable manner. As far as Lynch’s movies go, he remains a surprising, inventive director with a penchant for framing scenes in unexpected ways and taking us down routes we never expected to go. Mayhem remains his magnum opus, the ideal blend of Lynch’s manic style and a compelling story, but Suitable Flesh is a great way to spend 100 minutes if you’re in the mood for something messier with two beloved actors at the top of their game running the show.
Suitable Flesh will be available in theaters and everywhere you rent movies on October 27, 2023
WICKED RATING: 8/10
Director(s): Joe Lynch
Writer(s): H.P. Lovecraft, Dennis Paoli
Stars: Heather Graham, Barbara Crampton, Graham Skipper, Judah Lewis
Release date: October 27, 2023
Language: English
Run Time: 100 minutes
