By David Dent
From the opening reference to Miskatonic Medical School (where Herbert West plied his trade all those years ago) to the Re-Animator-esque theme music, we’re back in that weird Lovecraft hinterland explored back in the 1980s by Stuart Gordon; this one’s inspired by a minor short story from the author called ‘The Thing on the Doorstep’. Writer Dennis Paoli worked on many of these movies and had prepared a draft of this one for Gordon to work on, prior to his death in 2020; so it’s perhaps unsurprising that, tonally, this feels like familiar territory.
Dr Dani Upton (Barbara Crampton, who else?) is formally interviewing her friend who is currently incarcerated in the hospital. Dr Elizabeth Derby (a spirited performance by Heather Graham) explains in flashbacks how she came to be so detained. Derby, a therapist and author of books on schizophrenia, is surprised at her office by a young guy in some agitation. Asa White (Judah Lewis) presents as a nervous patient but following a seizure in front of her transforms, Jekyll and Hyde style, into a suave, confident seducer, whose direct sexual overtures to Dr Derby stay in her mind, even while having sex with her husband (in the first of a number of softcore sex scenes which, with their rising sax soundtrack, seem to have strayed in from episodes of The Red Shoe Diaries).
But the truth of the body-hopping is a lot weirder and kinkier, than anything dreamt up by Robert Louis Stevenson; as Derby finds out. The entity flitting between the cast members has its own personality and agenda.
Anyone looking for the excesses of Re-Animator, From Beyond, or the other Paoli-penned Gordon/Lovecraft entries may be disappointed here. But to some extent Suitable Flesh is those movies grown up; it also feels rather similar to Frank Henenlotter’s 2008 pic Bad Biology. Graham does amazing work here, pulling off that difficult task of portraying multiple personalities, but Crampton is also on fine form too. Based on their performances, they deserve star billing in future projects.
Suitable Flesh is released in UK cinemas on Friday 27 October 2023.
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