History Film / Society

* HistoricalInJoke: Judge Carter brags about the members of Society claiming descent from Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan in his speech introducing Ted before his fight with Billy. Ironically, Julius Caesar never left a line of descent as his own children died before having ones of their own, while conversly, Genghis Khan's dynasty had so many children that millions of people can trace their lineage back to him. He's essentially bragging about having extremely common descent as well as lying about descent from another person, further soldifying that the members of Society are nothing but dim hedonists.

-->"''Let's get...to the BOTTOM...of this!''"

* CloudCuckooLander: Most peripheral characters seem very much "off" from the get-go, but Clarissa's mother Ms. Carlyn stands out in particular. She's a huge woman with an intimidating presence who never speaks, enjoys eating hair, and in the words of one reviewer, "seems to have wandered in from a Creator/JohnWaters movie that was shooting next door." Luckily, despite being a member of high society and implicitly having the same gruesome abilities as her daughter, Ms. Carlyn is totally harmless and benign, even helping to save the day at the end.

* IAmNotYourFather: Turns out, Billy was adopted, and for the sole purpose of eventually serving as a meal for a "shunt" after being {{gaslight|ing}}ed into making him and others question his sanity when the time came. This is what passes for a hilarious joke amidst the Society, highlighting just how utterly callous and depraved they are.

* ItWasHereISwear: Martin tries to warn him about the suspicious stuff going on behind closed doors, and arranges to meet him at a location late at night. Bill finds the guy's murdered body in the trunk of an abandoned car, but when he returns with the police the evidence has already been removed. [[spoiler: Martin set it up himself, and he shows up unharmed the next day to fuck with Billy's mind even further]].

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Every member of the Society, Ted aside, gets away free and clear and will presumably go on preying on the lower classes.]]
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler: On the other hand...the comic sequel ''Party Animal'' has Billy eventually take his revenge and completely eradicate the Beverly Hills division of Society by poisoning them at a Shunt.]]

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Strongly implied with Ted. Despite their shunting ability, getting turned inside out is more than Society can withstand physically. One members gasps, "He's ''congealing''!"]]

* NoEnding: [[spoiler: Bill escapes with Clarissa and Milo after decking his "father", Ted is turned inside out, but Judge Carter merely quips that there's a new opening vacated by Ted's "death", and there's no evidence that Bill will ever be safe.]]

* ParentalIncest: Bill is horrified to discover that his parents have been engaging in orgies with his sister. After he discovers that they're actually humanoid monsters who can distort their bodies, his sister([[BodyHorror 's face, protruding from both of their parents' torsos]]) even mockingly offers him to join in.
--> "If you have any Oedipal fantasies you'd like to indulge in, Billy, now's the time!"

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler: Dave Blanchard is horrifically absorbed by the mob, and Billy very nearly dies while challenging Ted to a shunt, where he manages to kill him by inverting him, causing the members of Society to pause in shock and Milo and Clarissa bust him out, but not before he decks his "dad" in the face so hard he flies across the room. Society promises to track him and his friends down, but he escapes with them on his Jeep, leaving him time to plan how to take them down.]]
* ShapeshifterShowoffSession: In the finale, the villains who aren't busy with the massive flesh-absorbing orgy take great delight in screwing with Billy by demonstrating their shapeshifting powers: [[spoiler: Ted [[OverlyLongTongue extends his tongue]] and [[LecherousLicking gleefully licks Billy's face]]; Dr Cleveland shapes his head into a giant hand, then [[RubberMan stretches his right arm like elastic]] to grab at Billy; Nan reveals that she's removed her limbs and fused herself with various bits of Jim and Jenny - complete with Jenny's head suddenly erupting from her groin to menace Billy... and then the rest of Jim lurches out from under the bedsheets - with his face protruding from the cheeks of his ass.]]

** In the climax, [[spoiler: Dr Cleveland]] shapes his head into a giant hand while the camera is focused on Billy's horrified reaction, eventually cutting back to reveal the fully-transformed head; however, the sight of his actual hand stretching out like elastic to grab Billy is shown in full.

* TransformationExhilaration: The perverted elite enjoy their shapeshifting powers, and take great pleasure in the process of transforming. In one early scene, Jenny [[RubberMan twists her body around]] so that her breasts face the same direction as the cheeks of her ass, moaning loudly as she does so. In another case, [[spoiler: Jenny and Nan]] are encountered in the aftermath of having merged themselves, and the latter demonstrates an almost post-coital satisfaction. Taken to its logical conclusion in the finale, when Society uses their powers to merge with an innocent victim in a grotesque orgy, moaning and shrieking throughout.

Bill Whitney is a popular teenager living in Beverly Hills, the only son of a wealthy upper class family. Despite his privileged position, he feels out of place in his family and life. Several strange circumstances lead him to suspect that his family and friends may not be what they seem, as Bill uncovers a conspiracy among the higher members of society.

-->'''Ted:''' You know the schedule; first, we dine. Then, I fucked your sister. Then, everybody else got so turned on, they fucked her too. As far as big ol' breath Blanchard goes; I ran that low-rent fool right into a pole. Pretty busy week, don't you think?

* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: [[spoiler: David.]]

* TheMasquerade: Society, which claims that it's [[AncientConspiracy been around since the dawn of civilization]]. Turns out that the elites are actually ravenous, mutating, people-eating monsters.

* OnlySaneMan: Dave Blanchard, the mousy teenager caught spying on Billy's sister in the beginning, turns out to be this: he's the only one who suspects something's up from the start and worries accordingly, and he comes close enough to necessitate his [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade "disappearance."]] Tragically, this means he's subjected to being the victim of the "shunts" in the climax--a ''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath nauseatingly]]'' horrible, prolonged fate for him.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When [[spoiler: Ted is KilledOffForReal,]] the other Society members drop their SmugSnake attitude.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Ted is KilledOffForReal, the other Society members drop their SmugSnake attitude.

* PaperTiger: The Society members' true power lies in their money and social position, because as grotesque as they are, their RubberMan powers come with serious drawbacks that can easily be turned against them.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler: On the other hand...the comic sequel 'Party Animal' has Billy eventually take his revenge and completely eradicate the Beverly Hills division of Society by poisoning them at a Shunt.]]

* HistoricalInJoke: Judge Carter brags about the members of Society claiming descent from Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan in his speech introducing Ted before his fight with Billy. Ironically, Julius Caesar never left a line of descent as his own children died before having ones of their own, while conversly, Genghis Khan's dynasty had so many children that millions of people can trace their lineage back to him. He's essentially bragging about absolutely nothing, further soldifying that the members of Society are nothing but dim hedonists.

* HighClassCannibal: Billy's family, and the rest of their Beverly Hills elite, are revealed to be [[spoiler:a "variant" species who eat humans, or at least suck all the nutrients from their bodies. Billy was kidnapped from ordinary people and raised by a family of them for this express purpose.]]

** [[spoiler:Ted Ferguson]] gets an equally nasty one, dying via a hand up his crotch that grabs him through the mouth and eye sockets like a bowling ball, and '''pulls him inside out'''. Unlike the above-mentioned victim, though, [[AssholeVictim he had it coming]].

* ItWasHereISwear: One of Bill's classmates tries to warn him about the suspicious stuff going on behind closed doors, and arranges to meet him at a location late at night. Bill finds the guy's murdered body in the trunk of an abandoned car, but when he returns with the police the evidence has already been removed. [[spoiler: Said classmate set it up himself, and he shows up unharmed the next day to fuck with Billy's mind even further]].

* AmbiguousGender: Mrs. Carlyn. The fact that it's hard to tell if she's played by a woman is a testament to Pamela Matheson's performance.

* AssShove: Judge Carter shoves his hand up [[spoiler:Dave Blanchard's]] ass and out of his mouth.

* CreepyGood: Ms. Carlyn, as explained under CloudCuckooLander above, is intensely weird and creepy but firmly on the heroic side.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Clarissa has the same ability to "shunt" as the other Society members, but falls in love with Billy and never uses it to harm anyone. The same presumably applies to her extremely weird but ultimately benign mother.

* FanDisservice: Jenny is really adorable and quite attractive, but once you take her "contributions" to Society into account ...

* HorrifyingTheHorror: After Billy kills or maims Ted the other Society members are suddenly terrified of him and fear to even touch him.

* JerkJock: Ferguson has the jock attitude down pat, and turns out to be one of the evil Society members.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Every member of the Society, Ted aside, gets away free and clear, and will go on preying on the lower classes.]]

* HighClassCannibal: Billy's family, and the rest of their Beverly Hills elite, are revealed to be an alien species [[spoiler:who eat humans, or at least suck all the nutrients from their bodies. Billy was kidnapped from ordinary people and raised by the aliens for this express purpose.]]

* HumanAliens: Defied. When Bill calls the members of Society alien scum, they claim that they didn't come from outer space and that their LovecraftianSuperpower is simply the result of "impeccable breeding" - though one Society member claims they've "been here as long as you," implying either a separate species native to Earth or a divergent evolutionary path. WordOfGod is that they are descendants of humans who were taken over by a parasite that turned them into a different species, and that shunting is how they add diversity to their excessively inbred bloodlines.

* HorrifyingTheAbomination: After Billy kills or maims Ted the other Society members are suddenly terrified of him and fear to even touch him.

''Society'' is a 1989 BodyHorror film and the directorial debut of ''Film/ReAnimator'' producer Creator/BrianYuzna.

* HumanAliens: Defied. When Bill calls the members of Society alien scum, they claim that they didn't come from outer space and that their LovecraftianSuperpower is simply the result of "impeccable breeding" - though one Society member claims they've "been here as long as you," implying either a separate species native to Earth or a divergent evolutionary path.
** WordOfGod is that they are descendants of humans who were taken over by a parasite that turned them into a different species, and that shunting is how they add diversity to their excessively inbred bloodlines.

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler: Dave Blanchard is horrifically absorbed by the mob, and Billy very nearly dies while challenging Todd to a shunt, where he manages to kill him by inverting him, causing the members of Society to pause in shock and Milo and Clarissa bust him out, but not before he decks his "dad" in the face so hard he flies across the room. Society promises to track him and his friends down, but he escapes with them on his Jeep, leaving him time to plan how to take them down.]]

** WordOfGod is that they are descendants of humans who were taken over by a parasite that turned them into a different species.