Frightfest 2023: ‘The Darkside of Society’ Review
Featuring: Zeph E. Daniel, Julian Sands, Brian Yuzna, Screaming Mad George, Richard Stanley | Directed by Larry Wade Carrell
It’s one of the most controversial, influential and groundbreaking horror satires of the 1980s. Brian Yuzna’s Society told a terrifying surreality of what the rich were doing to the poor in shocking, sexual detail. But did you know it was based on truth and took inspiration from the satanic ritual abuse carried out by the Beverly Hills elite Keith family? Or that son Woody Keith changed his name to Zeph E. Daniel and co-scripted Society to exorcise the demons from his violent youth? This is the full, appalling story of how Daniel’s autobiography became a classic chiller for the ages.
Have you read that official synopsis above? Does it sound bizarre? Well, this documentary is more bizarre than you can imagine!
A satire on the rich versus poor divide – something that is even MORE prevalent today – Society was, when I was growing up, something of a rite of passage. It was a challenge between my school friends and I as to who could sit through the gloriously insane end of the film and who couldn’t. Me? I fell in love with the grotesqueries of the film – a film that mixed sex and violence but, and it wasn’t until years later that I realised this, no gore. The horror was all about the chewy, stringy, and downright slimy “shunting” AND the horror of class ‘warfare’.
What I could never have predicted was, almost 35 years after its release, being told that whilst Society was a grotesque look at rich versus poor it was also a subconscious cry for help for its writer – who had suffered satanic ritual abuse at the hands of his own wealthy parents and had written the script with no knowledge of what happened in his past but somehow penned an almost autobiographical tale in Society. Talking about reflecting real life!
But is it real? As has been pointed out by other writers, the idea of satanic abuse has been – in more recent times – thoroughly debunked, as has the idea that those abused were somehow brainwashed into forgetting what happened; with recovered memories seemingly blurring the lines between truth and fiction themselves. But Zeph E. Daniel certainly believes it to be true and given the background of his family – being connected to long-standing US corporations like Lockheed and Disney – you could almost believe their influence could extend to more than your typical family.
But then could it all have just been a high-achieving father expressing disappointment in his son? Without any sort of “satanic” aspect to the abuse. But abuse is still abuse and it seems Zeph E. Daniel’s life and career has been well-defined by it – so much so that he’s devoted his later life to working against human trafficking and the like.
Filmed by Larry Wade Carrell, who has more recently worked with Zeph E. Daniel on films like Girl Next and The Quantum Devil, The Darkside of Society is a very downbeat look at Society – not so much the film itself, which you might have expected, but at its creator. And whilst I would have preferred more of a look at the making of the film (we do get appearances from Brian Yuzna and Screaming Mad George but both feel fleeting) there’s no denying the power of the film we do get. It’s just whether you believe Daniel’s story or not that will determine your enjoyment of this film.
*** 3/5
The Darkside of Society screened as part of this year’s Frightfest London.
