 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Suitable Flesh • Year: 2023 • Country: USA • Director: Joe Lynch • Main cast: Heather Graham, Judah Lewis, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Davison, Johnathon Schaech, Giovannie Cruz • Runtime: 100 minutes • Production company: AMP International, Eyevox Entertainment • TRAILER
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Before its release on Shudder on October 27, 2023, the horror-thriller Suitable Flesh (2023) is having its genre festival run. And yesterday it was its turn for the Sitges Film Festival, an environment where the film is in its very own element and with an audience completely absorbed by the madness displayed and cheering out loud at any violent or bloody moment of the film. And there are a few of them.
Suitable Flesh (2023) is the perfect fit for a genre festival as such, with an audience all hyped up, the perfect bloody horror popcorn affair to watch with the right company, because, sadly there is not much more it can deliver to the panorama but some wicked moments and predictable frights. The filmmakers use as the source an H.P. Lovecraft story formatted into the habitual straight-to-video or streaming product of straight-to-the-point storytelling and little attention to detail. Still, despite its many flaws and the feeling of missing a good chance to develop a horror movie to be long remembered, the whole thing stays as a forgettable but fun experience.
There are a few plot moments that exude originality that had a potential for something greater, and the final climax of the movie is a blast of bloody violence and, allow me the term, even body horror, but the final picture is perhaps targetted too much to a self-indulgence audience and the filmmakers vowed for the immediacy at the cost of imprinting the movie with a punch and personality to outstand from the rest.
But we should never forget Suitable Flesh (2023) is an enjoyable horror movie. Joe Lynch, having been behind Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007), Knights of Badassdom (2013), and Mayhem (2017), has proven enough to be a good asset as a director when you want to attract the masses of horror goers, and the presence of Barbara Crampton adds nothing but the crafts of someone who has gained the titled of an icon in the genre the film. Far from her golden times when her name was shining on top of the billing in hit movies, Heather Graham plays the lead with enough confidence and connection with the show carrying the story and the multiple faces of her character with a correct performance. And the special effects are generous with gore and violence, so there is not much to complain about in that subject.
Perhaps the tone of this text is not very euphoric but it’s mainly because after watching Suitable Flesh (2023) one can’t help to think that the filmmakers lost a great opportunity to deliver something more with the story material they had in their hands. Especially with a screenplay by the H.P. Lovecraft adaptations specialist Dennis Paoli, responsible for the scripts for Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986), Pulse Pounders (1988), Body Snatchers (1993), Castle Freak (1995), Dagon (2001), and many others. But, yet, it was an enjoyable film and I wouldn’t mind watching it with as much enthusiasm as I did this time if I catch it again.
RATE: 5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt21397580
