Psychiatrist Elizabeth Derby becomes obsessed with helping a young patient suffering from extreme personality disorder. But it leads her into dark occult danger as she tries to escape a horrific fate.

For in-depth thoughts on Suitable Flesh, please see my colleague Gaius Bolling’s review from its original theatrical debut here.

Video Quality

The film debuts on Blu-Ray with a 1080p presentation in its original aspect ratio which delivers a great experience. The movie itself is lovingly saturated with color with a robust palette that captures the depth and nuance of the spaces on display. The transfer also treats you to a striking amount of detail and clarity. There is a slight loss of detail in some of the panning shots in the shadows, but it is not a persistent issue throughout. The movie explores dark spaces quite a bit, so luckily the transfer provides deep black levels that do not suffer from crush. Objects hold up mostly well in the shadows and retain their depth with only fleeting banding at hand. There is no damage or digital noise on display in this transfer. RLJE Entertainment has treated this one well on the video side of things.

Audio Quality

Suitable Flesh comes to Blu-Ray with a notably active DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track. The experience is vicious in a good way, especially during any transference of consciousness between bodies. Dialogue and sound effects remain in harmony with the score from Steve Moore where nothing gets murky in the track. The movie provides an intense workout in key moments, and environmental sounds provide a very unsettling, all-encompassing atmosphere for the story. The low end of the track provides some gritty texture when more horrific content is being explored. Surround channels get some creepy activity with supernatural flourishes at play. This audio track delivers exactly how you want it to. There are optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles provided.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Director Joe Lynch and producers Barbara Crampton and Bob Portal provide an entertaining commentary track in which they discuss the decision to adapt this material, how the characters evolved from their initial conception, the casting of various roles, Crampton working both in front of and behind the camera, the special effects work, and much more that is well worth a listen if you enjoyed the move.

Behind The Scene of Suitable Flesh: A 25-minute making-of featurette is provided in which the cast and creative team take you through the development and production of the project while exploring elements such as the casting, the special effects, and more.

A Suitable Score – A Conversation with Composer Steve Moore: A 14-minute conversation with the composer in which he discusses his motivations behind certain themes, the inspiration from classic movies, particular instruments that were used, and more.

Storyboard To Screen: A 12-minute look at the journey from the initial storyboards of certain moments to the final product we have on screen.

Blooper Reel: A five-minute collection of flubbed or forgotten lines, goofing around, laughing fits, and more.

Final Thoughts

Suitable Flesh is a fun bit of cosmic and body horror that uses humor effectively while knowing when to unsettle or titillate the audience. The tone is a delicate one, but it is one that the creative team navigates well throughout. The performances are pretty strong throughout, especially Judah Lewis who is asked to modulate during a good number of different emotions. The special effect work is appropriately gnarly, and nothing about the project seems particularly sanitized. Fans of exploitation cinema may feel things could have been pushed a bit further, but this is a solid movie for horror fans. RLJE Films has released a Blu-Ray featuring a great A/V presentation and some welcome special features. Recommended

Suitable Flesh will be available to purchase on Blu-ray and DVD on January 9, 2024.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: RLJE Films has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.