Suitable Flesh(Review) - Gruesome Gazette

The newest offering from Joe Lynch harkens back to the past with an adaptation of the H.P Lovecraft tale “The Thing On The Doorstep” with a loving tribute to Stuart Gordon and bringing the writer of those films Dennis Paoli on board.

The plot sees a psychiatrist Elizabeth Derby who gets a visit from a troubled young man named Asa who seems to suffer from extreme schizophrenia. She finds herself drawn to him and an occult threat beyond her understanding.
If you recall the films Stuart Gordon created based on H.P. Lovecraft such as Re-Animator or From Beyond, you will remember how there was a touch of dark eroticism and obsession that was a theme. This is very much the case with this film as Dr Derby, played by Heather Graham, ahas a lot of sex during the course of her strange encounters. She takes on Asa’s case and then becomes obsessed with him which makes things even worse for her.

She then discovers the truth of what is really going on and that’s when things get even more interesting. Most of the film is told by Dr Derby as she ends up as patient herself in a psych ward as a result of what she went through. And it ended up being a very nice touch that even though what she explained seemed completely nuts it was slowly proven that there was something much darker happening.

There was some very brutal and gory moments on display here, including one intense scene where everything you see is happening on a dashboard cam of a car. It was a very cool shot and the violence on screen just gets more and more extreme. My only complaint I have is we are shown what happens when Asa has his “episodes” of schizophrenia. It wouldn’t be so bad if we were just shown it a few times to give the viewer of an idea of what that looks like. But nope, we are shown that every single time. I can understand it really wanted it to be shown so the audience is involved in the process but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Other than that, this was a pretty good exploration of madness, sex, and of course the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft. And the cherry on the cake was Lynch dedicating the film to the late Stuart Gordon. Another connection was Barbara Crampton who was also a reoccurring actress in Gordon’s films playing a supporting character here. In all, I ended being very impressed by it, and if you loved Stuart Gordon or just Lovecraftian horror as a whole, I cannot recommend this movie enough. It is currently streaming on Shudder.

If you already seen Suitable Flesh, what was your thoughts in it? Be sure to let us know in the comments below!

Till next time, stay scared!
-Tha Thrilla-