Society - the sickest comedy(?) about the elite

TC1968

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I watched it a few months back, it is indeed a creepy sick movie
 

A.J.

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I watched it a few months back, it is indeed a creepy sick movie
Neither, it is more of a satire/black comedy.
But the ending seems like an insiders message? Like he’s having fun providing a sick satirical glimpse into a very sick reality. Specifically orgies, exploitation, debauchery and murder. And how they literally feed off the r*pe, murder and demise of (youth?) others. Knowing some things we know do you think it hits close to home?

EWS w/out the window dressing, maybe? Toxic avenger style EWS?
 

TC1968

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But the ending seems like an insiders message? Like he’s having fun providing a sick satirical glimpse into a very sick reality. Specifically orgies, exploitation, debauchery and murder. And how they literally feed off the r*pe, murder and demise of (youth?) others. Knowing some things we know do you think it hits close to home?

EWS w/out the window dressing, maybe? Toxic avenger style EWS?
Its possible, but I would be careful reading too much into the movie. Same goes with They Live which a lot of people seem to think was made to expose the elites etc. When Carpenter made it back in 86 he was doing it as a direct swipe at Ronald Reagan, Reaganomics, and the Conservative/Christian movement.
 

TempestOfTempo

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Its possible, but I would be careful reading too much into the movie. Same goes with They Live which a lot of people seem to think was made to expose the elites etc. When Carpenter made it back in 86 he was doing it as a direct swipe at Ronald Reagan, Reaganomics, and the Conservative/Christian movement.
I agree with your take on They Live, but also think Carpenter could read the writing on the wall which enabled/emboldened him to push the envelope of exposure...... I think the Reagn-era threw a shield of sorts up for him to expose this bigger picture a bit indirectly while taking frontal shots that would resonate/sink in w/the audience.
 

TC1968

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I agree with your take on They Live, but also think Carpenter could read the writing on the wall which enabled/emboldened him to push the envelope of exposure...... I think the Reagn-era threw a shield of sorts up for him to expose this bigger picture a bit indirectly while taking frontal shots that would resonate/sink in w/the audience.
Carpenter was very liberal back then but seems to have moved to the Libertarian position as of late. From what I understand he was involved with Steven Crowder a few years back, so he may have actually moved to a more conservative world view.
 

A.J.

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Carpenter was very liberal back then but seems to have moved to the Libertarian position as of late. From what I understand he was involved with Steven Crowder a few years back, so he may have actually moved to a more conservative world view.
Really? WoW! That would be a surprise. I love They Live. I love that blind preacher character and always felt like Carpenter must have some faith underneath all that dark creativity. I also love Escape from Ny & Big trouble in little China. Carpenter is great!
 

TC1968

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Really? WoW! That would be a surprise. I love They Live. I love that blind preacher character and always felt like Carpenter must have some faith underneath all that dark creativity. I also love Escape from Ny & Big trouble in little China. Carpenter is great!
I like They Live but love his horror movies - The Fog, Halloween, The Thing, etc
I'm still not sure what he did with Crowder, it came up a year or so ago
 

Johnny5

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Really? WoW! That would be a surprise. I love They Live. I love that blind preacher character and always felt like Carpenter must have some faith underneath all that dark creativity. I also love Escape from Ny & Big trouble in little China. Carpenter is great!
Man, I probably watched Big Trouble in Little China 100 times as a kid/teenager. I had forgotten about that and They Live.
 

Karlysymon

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Its possible, but I would be careful reading too much into the movie. Same goes with They Live which a lot of people seem to think was made to expose the elites etc. When Carpenter made it back in 86 he was doing it as a direct swipe at Ronald Reagan, Reaganomics, and the Conservative/Christian movement.
Well, I didn’t know this because this is something that isn’t oft-mentioned when people talk about this film. I agree about reading too much into a film. The director’s influences/inspiration should always take precedence in regard to what the message of the film is, not what the viewer who didn’t make the film thinks its about. Its true, not every film director is going to mention ALL sources of inspiration for their work, for reason best known to themselves. So, sometimes we never really get the whole truth about a film/song.

H.P Lovecraft is really up there, isn’t he dubbed the grandfather of sci-fi? His lingering influence over the genre and his name popping up in occult-themed stuff has been noted so I thought it was interesting that while Carpenter says They Live is about unrestrained capitalism, he also;

[Carpenter] decided to use the pseudonym "Frank Armitage", an allusion to one of the filmmaker's favorite writers, H. P. Lovecraft (Henry Armitage is a character in Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror).[3] Carpenter has always felt a close kinship with Lovecraft's worldview and according to the director, "Lovecraft wrote about the hidden world, the 'world underneath'. His stories were about gods who are repressed, who were once on Earth and are now coming back. The world underneath has a great deal to do with They Live.” ~Wikipedia

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I didn’t watch the OP because iam sure its something my mind cannot handle….yeah, iam very weak, I know
 

Mr.Anderson

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The brazilian translation of the title of this move is: "The society of the friends of the devil";
 

A.J.

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Well, I didn’t know this because this is something that isn’t oft-mentioned when people talk about this film. I agree about reading too much into a film. The director’s influences/inspiration should always take precedence in regard to what the message of the film is, not what the viewer who didn’t make the film thinks its about. Its true, not every film director is going to mention ALL sources of inspiration for their work, for reason best known to themselves. So, sometimes we never really get the whole truth about a film/song.

H.P Lovecraft is really up there, isn’t he dubbed the grandfather of sci-fi? His lingering influence over the genre and his name popping up in occult-themed stuff has been noted so I thought it was interesting that while Carpenter says They Live is about unrestrained capitalism, he also;

[Carpenter] decided to use the pseudonym "Frank Armitage", an allusion to one of the filmmaker's favorite writers, H. P. Lovecraft (Henry Armitage is a character in Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror).[3] Carpenter has always felt a close kinship with Lovecraft's worldview and according to the director, "Lovecraft wrote about the hidden world, the 'world underneath'. His stories were about gods who are repressed, who were once on Earth and are now coming back. The world underneath has a great deal to do with They Live.” ~Wikipedia

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I didn’t watch the OP because iam sure its something my mind cannot handle….yeah, iam very weak, I know
Hovercraft influenced the guy who directed Society. The guy who directed Society is also the same dude who worked on Hovercraft’s Reanimator which seems like a really sick, sick film (but surprisingly received critical acclaim). Society probably is pretty tame by today’s standards, just a sick concept in which the alien elite get together and basically feed off each other in some strange ways like shape shifters. Seems symbolic of a greater sick sacrificial reality.
 
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TC1968

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Well, I didn’t know this because this is something that isn’t oft-mentioned when people talk about this film. I agree about reading too much into a film. The director’s influences/inspiration should always take precedence in regard to what the message of the film is, not what the viewer who didn’t make the film thinks its about. Its true, not every film director is going to mention ALL sources of inspiration for their work, for reason best known to themselves. So, sometimes we never really get the whole truth about a film/song.

H.P Lovecraft is really up there, isn’t he dubbed the grandfather of sci-fi? His lingering influence over the genre and his name popping up in occult-themed stuff has been noted so I thought it was interesting that while Carpenter says They Live is about unrestrained capitalism, he also;

[Carpenter] decided to use the pseudonym "Frank Armitage", an allusion to one of the filmmaker's favorite writers, H. P. Lovecraft (Henry Armitage is a character in Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror).[3] Carpenter has always felt a close kinship with Lovecraft's worldview and according to the director, "Lovecraft wrote about the hidden world, the 'world underneath'. His stories were about gods who are repressed, who were once on Earth and are now coming back. The world underneath has a great deal to do with They Live.” ~Wikipedia

********
I didn’t watch the OP because iam sure its something my mind cannot handle….yeah, iam very weak, I know
Carpenter has always had Lovecraftian themes in his movies - there is only a small handful where there isn't some kind of nod to Lovecraft
 

TC1968

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He influenced the guy who directed Society and also worked on Hovercraft’s Reanimator which seemed like a really sick, sick film (but surprisingly received critical acclaim). Society probably is pretty tame by today’s standards, just a sick concept in which the alien elite get together and basically feed off each other in some strange ways like shape shifters. Seems symbolic of a greater sick sacrificial reality.
I think the director did hit the bullseye, even though it seemed to me from watching the movie and seeing interviews with the director that he was using the idea of the elite feeding off the rest of us as being a very dark comedy.
Brian Yuzna has made a lot of movies as a writer, director, and producer that were based on Lovecraftian material or at least were Lovecraftian themes. I like the movie Dagon, and he also did a really good anthology style movie based on Lovecraft short stories called Necronomicon
 
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