Horror has always been a great testing platform to new, interesting genre mashups. That’s showcased, to great effect, in the new film, “Suitable Flesh,” from filmmaker Joe Lynch. And in this episode of The Playlist Podcast, I speak with Lynch about his new film that mixes gruesome Lovecraftian horror with a good ol’ ‘80s/‘90s erotic thriller.
Yes, you heard that right, “Suitable Flesh” is a film that mixes seemingly disparate genres of horror and erotic thriller. The film stars Heather Graham as a psychiatrist who finds herself inexplicably drawn to a new, incredibly troubled young patient. Little does she know, her attraction to this young man would lead to a horrific Lovecraftian bodyswap where she becomes possessed with some sort of entity, who just wants to smoke cigarettes, have sex, and commit gruesome murder. If that doesn’t clue you in to what to expect, then let me tell you flat out, “Suitable Flesh” is a wild ride.
But that’s not all you need to know about “Suitable Flesh.” In our discussion, I ask Joe Lynch about the origins of the film, which began its life as a Lovecraft story that was going to be directed by legendary horror filmmaker, Stuart Gordon. However, after his passing in 2020, Lynch took over and created a film as a “loveletter to the master.”
“When we lost Stuart in 2020, it was one of those things where, ‘I guess we’re never going to see that fully realized,’” Lynch explained. “When Barbara Crampton emailed me about this, literally two months after Stuart had died, and just kinda floated the idea of like, ‘Would you be interested in doing this?’ I got equally excited and scared. Excited because, ‘Wow, they thought of me?’ Supposedly, the lore has it that Stuart actually mentioned my name when he was talking about who would take the mantle. Personally, I think he said David Lynch and something got garbled along the way.”
He added, “I was also terrified to screw it up.”
In addition to talking about Gordon’s influence, we also discuss the erotic thriller influence, and the impact of gender-flipping the genre’s tropes. What does an ‘80s or ‘90s erotic thriller look like if the protagonist is an older woman? And can you really add blood and gore?
“I always saw this as a horror peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” said Lynch about the genre mashup. “I’m sure anyone, at first, went, ‘Peanut butter and jelly? That makes no sense!’ Or like pineapple on pizza. ‘What the fuck is that?!’ But you take a bite and think, ‘Actually those play off each other kinda well.’”
And as if this wasn’t enough, Joe Lynch and I talk about his 2013 short film, “Truth in Journalism,” which is a wonderful ‘Venom’ short film based on the Marvel Comic, and we end the interview in the best possible way, raving about our love of “RoboCop.” In fact, Lynch actually had a “RoboCop” project in the works, at one point.
“I pitched an idea to Machinima–that ended up going to MGM–about a show called ‘RoboCOPS.’ It took place after ‘RoboCop 2,’ when OCP’s stock went kaput because of what happened with RoboCop 2. So, what do they do? They decide to put the video feed from RoboCop’s H.U.D. on TV because they had no other programming. And it becomes a huge hit. Essentially, it was ‘COPS’ in the world of ‘RoboCop.’”
He added, “One of my favorite fake docs of all time is ‘Spinal Tap.’ And I love the running joke that they keep losing drummers all the time because they keep dying. I thought, ‘How funny would it be if they had to send a producer out with RoboCop and he keeps dying?’ They have to literally deputize his partner, but he’s a producer. So, they call him a ‘profficer.’ I wrote eight episodes. Dude, it’s one of my favorite things of all time that I wrote… I still, to this day, hope I can try again with it.”
“Suitable Flesh” hits thaters and VOD on October 27. You can hear the full discussion below:
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