Rating: NR | Runtime: 100 minutes
Release Date: October 27th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: RLJE Films / Shudder
Director(s): Joe Lynch
Writer(s): Dennis Paoli / H.P. Lovecraft (short story “The Thing on the Doorstep”)

After the third time, it’s forever.

After seeing the aftermath of a brutal death that’s left its victim unrecognizable in the morgue, Dr. Dani Upton (Barbara Crampton) goes to the padded cell that now houses its murderer: her old friend and fellow psychologist Dr. Beth Derby (Heather Graham). She wants answers, but cannot parse the ravings of the schizophrenic personality in front of her—a diagnosis the latter agrees fits with her description of her current reality. Their shared history allows Dani to at least give Beth the benefit of the doubt insofar as explaining what happened. Maybe once the story is out, she can help provide some semblance of peace since there’s little chance Beth will ever leave that hospital.

Adapted by screenwriter Dennis Paoli from H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Thing on the Doorstep”, director Joe Lynch’s Suitable Flesh rewinds to the day Beth met the patient who ultimately changes her life forever. His name is Asa Waite (Judah Lewis) and he’s terrified of his father, imploring her to understand he means to take his body as his own. She’s drawn to him and his condition, believing he could be a case study worthy of writing another book. So, she does what she always tells herself never to do: makes a house call. There she meets his dying dad (Bruce Davison’s Ephraim) and spies the books of ancient rituals and demon octopi.

What happens next is exactly what you’d expect whether you’ve read the original or not since the concept has been wielded countless times since (think Fallen for an offshoot example). Whatever it is that inhabits Ephraim’s body needs to escape its failing flesh and Asa is the logical replacement until Beth turns up to give it the option for a complete change of pace. The idea of male/female is obviously in play as well as the notion that flesh can be both a physical home and an object for carnal pleasure. Cue the multi-level jokes about being “inside” the other and some entertaining performative shifts once a current consciousness is replaced by another in the presence of a non-believer.

Lynch is going for an old school schlocky feel here, so don’t be surprised when the actors deliver laughable line readings against a cheesy score as mundane scenes flip over to embellished thrusting with the snap of a finger. It’s all very tongue-in-cheek—especially with Johnathon Schaech doing a fantastic job as the oft-used and abused piece of meat stuck in the middle via his role as Beth’s husband. He’s a pawn in this game for sex and emotional heft, so it’s easy to just let him exist as a punch line while the others engage in cat and mouse melodramatics. Will the entity take over Beth’s body before she can kill it? Will it ruin her life either way?

The first two-thirds are fun in their soap opera-ness with Graham and Crampton adding intrigue as Lewis’ villain chews scenery. It’s the final twenty minutes or so that really excel, though. That’s when the exposition catches up to the present and we witness the gruesome sight of the off-screen body from the opening scene. Everything escalates as the potential for putting an end to this creature’s reign or giving it everything it could ever want arrives. Graham gets to have fun as “It” for a bit and the carnage increases (not that an early decapitation wasn’t sufficiently brutal). It’s still sillier than not, but that’s intentional. Lynch made a throwback that begs for hoots and hollers. “Elevated horror” fans can stay home.

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Heather Graham as “Elizabeth Derby” and Barbara Crampton as “Dr. Daniella Upton” in Joe Lynch’s SUITABLE FLESH. Photo courtesy of AMP and Eyevox. An RLJE Films and Shudder release.