A few years ago there was some vague talk of a very belated sequel to Brian Yuzna's jaw-dropping, flesh-ripping class satire Society. Aside from the title - **Society 2: Body Modification **- no details were forthcoming and nothing much else was ever heard about it. Speaking to the Horror Channel recently, however, Yuzna has revealed that the film is still "in active development".
Society, should it have passed you by, premiered in 1989 and involved Billy Warlock discovering that his wealthy family and peers were perhaps not entirely what he'd always assumed. His investigations into some inexplicable oddities take him into ever more surreal and alarming territory, until the infamous, extraordinary FX extravaganza at the end. You get some sense of the goings-on in the trailer above, but really not the half of it. It's not every day you see a man turned inside-out through his anus.
Anyway... The original Society takes place around the high society homes in Beverly Hills. Yuzna says his idea for the sequel take us down into Hollywood club land. "It would take place in these super-exclusive late-night clubs they have in Hollywood," he explains. "Once you get in there's always a VIP room, or a VVIP room that's always off limits..." In other words, plenty of scope for dark mutant rich-person secret shenaningans.
"The problem is, as always, financing," he continues. "I am actively working on [Society 2]... but horror has become so mainstream that it seems to have mostly lost that transgressive creativity that used to make it so exhilarating... The business has changed considerably due to the digital revolution. There aren't many [small-but-enthusiastic indie genre studio] Trimarks out there anymore."
Yuzna goes on to ponder whether horror as we've known it recently is played out, citing Cabin In The Woods as something new and impressive that may point a way forward. He is, however, obviously not averse to looking back, since along with **Society **he says he's also hopeful for another Dentist. "And it would be nice to see Jeffrey Combs get out the Re-Animator syringe one more time..."
The occasion for the interview was The Horror Channel's acquisition of Yuzna's fun Return Of The Living Dead III. It plays tomorrow at 10:40pm.