Tribeca Festival 2023 Review: “Suitable Flesh” – A Unique Homage to Midnight Madness Horror!
Suitable Flesh directed by Joe Lynch stars Heather Graham, Judah Lewis, Bruce Davison, Barbara Crampton, Johnathon Schaech, making it a horror film with legendary and new talent. The film opens up with Elizabeth Derby in a mental institution describing to her doctor Daniella Upton (Barbara Crampton) her fear of the body in the next room, in hysterics about “making sure he is dead.” Upon her doctor’s curiosity, Suitable Flesh is told primarily in flashbacks as the audience sees Elizabeth as a therapist who becomes obsessed with her patient Asa Waite (Judah Lewis). It soon becomes evident that there is an entity inside of Asa that Elizabeth assumes is multiple personality disorder.
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The vibe of Suitable Flesh is one that I have never experienced in a film before as it fuses old school nostalgic B movie horror elements with cinematography and production design that looks like it came out of a soap opera. This is in no way an insult as it creates an atmosphere that feels dramatic, comedic, and based in the reality of Elizabeth’s character. The film feels like it takes place in a dreamlike state with both realistic and fantastical elements at play. Heather Graham and Judah Lewis give excellent performances. Having to stay grounded in their “normal” character while switching to a demonic entity mid-scene was impressive.
The film is clearly a horror comedy but not in a one liner obvious type of way. The dialogue spoken and the situations the characters find themselves in are humorous, such as when Elizabeth’s entire personality changes while her husband is home, seducing him in a way that he finds sexy, even if he doesn’t know a demon is possessing her spirit. Most of the comedy comes in the form of feeling horrified by some of the gore but feeling an undertone of comedy from screenwriter Dennis Paoli.
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What fell a little but flat was the horror. It seems the comedic undertones overpowered any type of real terror in the film. Any type of fear that Elizabeth was feeling was very hard to connect to because she was not in on the comedy the way the audience was. The comedy was not laugh out loud enough to make it memorable and the horror was not unsettling enough to make up for the average comedy. Overall, Suitable Flesh is an intriguing watch that feels unique in its own right but there was nothing in this film that left an extremely high mark.
‘Suitable Flesh’ Rating – 2.5/5
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