An official comic-book sequel to Brian Yuzna’s biting horror satire Society will be included in Arrow Video’s new Director Approved blu ray edition.
The 52-page perfect-bound edition charts the class warfare which swells between the film’s lead Billy Whitney and the upper class deviants ten years after the body-melding climax of the gruesome eighties classic.
The story, written by Ed Murphy and originally published by UK-based Rough Cut Comics in 2005, features many of the original characters – Billy’s girlfriend Clarissa, his friend Milo, the duplicitous shrink Doctor Cleveland – and also takes the idea of The Shunt to mega proportions.
“I wanted to try and make a strong connection between the film and the comic sequel,” admitted Murphy, who writes the Rose Black vampire series and also edits the Eagle Award winning GoodCopBadCop books.
“When I started thinking about a story for the comic-book, more than 10 years had passed. Things had moved on a bit, but I felt Society was one of those horror movies which had really been cemented in people’s minds.
“It made an indelible effect on the people who saw it. But I wanted to try and re-create that whole setting … in which something just doesn’t seem right.”
“When I spoke to Brian Yuzna about it, he had great ideas about this race of upper class beings. He had fantastic background stories set in ancient Rome where you could imagine this cannibalistic ritual fitting in like a gruesome treat.”
“Yuzna originally wanted us to adapt the film first, but I was so keen to take the story on in a new direction – an alternate timeline for a comic-book world. We had a three book story arc which took the setting to London and Rome.
“I now regret not adapting the original film first. But we probably wouldn’t have gone on with the Party Animal storyline if we did, and if Yuzna got his own film sequel into the production, I’d definitely like to go back and adapt the original in comic-book form.”
Yuzna has revealed he now has a new storyline involving a female protagonist who discovers the horrors of this upper-class society and still wants to be part of it. The director believes it would definitely bring the ‘Reagan-era’ traits of the original into the modern age.
The Director Approved blu ray features a host of extras including interviews with Yuzna and the original cast members as well as a profile of the film’s SFX genius Screaming Mad George.
SOCIETY: DIRECTOR APPROVED LIMITED EDITION Blu Ray and DVD is released by Arrow Video on June 8, 2015. Cat No: FCD1105.
