With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.

“Well son, I guess you’re right; I am a butthead!”

Until this moment, which sees Billy’s dad Jim emerge from beneath the bedsheets with his face emerging from his own butt and giggling at his joke, in Brian Yuzna’s memorable entry in ‘80s horror, most of teen Billy’s story had been steeped in paranoia. He begins Society as popular high schooler from an affluent family, but that changes when he’s handed a recording that implicates his parents as members of a murderous club. The more he tries to solve the mystery of his family, the stranger things become. But is there a larger conspiracy at play, or is Billy just going crazy? The grand finale, dubbed The Shunting, puts any ambiguity to rest with a head first dive into the ooey, gooey surreal that’s wholly unlike anything else ever committed to celluloid before.

Yuzna already had a string of celebrated horror movies under his belt as producer, with films like Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Dolls. But after a few projects falling through after failing to secure a director, he decided to transition into directing. Enter Society, a script written by Rick Fry and Woody Keith (Bride of Re-Animator). The original script had the wealthy as members of a cult, though, which culminated in a sacrificial bloodbath. That was boring to Yuzna, or rather he felt it’d been done before. He wanted something far more surreal and weirder, inspired by his nightmares. He swapped out the cult for an alien race. Once he was introduced to special effects artist Screaming Mad George, who reveled in surreal, the film really started to take shape.

Screaming Mad George had already established himself a talented artist with a penchant for weird thanks to his work on Big Trouble in Little China, Predator, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. In the latter, it was Mad George who handled the grotesque transformation and subsequent death of Brooke Theiss’ Debbie, a weight lifter with a fear of bugs. Freddy horrifically turns her into the very thing she fears most, a cockroach, before squashing her. It’s an outlandish and memorable death that’s also perfectly on brand for Screaming Mad George. So, his collaboration with Yuzna on Society and, more memorably, the Shunting became a match made in heaven.

Mad George recalled a formative influence when designing and creating the surreal makeup effects; the surrealist master artist Salvador Dali. There are a few paintings that served as inspiration behind the makeup effects, but the biggest source of inspiration for the Shunting came from Dali’s painting Autumnal Cannibalism. He nailed it.

The actual Shunting required massive sculptures and open spaces in the flooring that would allow the crew to puppeteer the amorphous alien blob to writhe and move from below. Which in turn made it a little tricky to shoot; if an actor missed their mark they might fall into one of the holes. And that slime? An insane amount of food thickener gel. Things got messy. There’s a small moment that sees a body get turned inside out, and the insides are squirming with slugs and creepy crawlies. Ironically, Screaming Mad George was repulsed by it and wouldn’t go anywhere near it. Even artists who dabble in the grotesquely surreal get unnerved.

Because the Shunting is essentially one massive, albeit gross, orgy, Society wound up sitting on the shelves for years before finally getting released stateside in 1992. Never mind its hugely successful run in Europe in 1989. Now it’s a celebrated cult classic, making Society yet another horror film released ahead of its time. Screaming Mad George was already an established artist, but his work as surrealistic makeup designer and creator brought it to a whole new level. For horror fans, simply seeing his name in the credits is the only tip-off you need to know that whatever comes next, it’s likely going to get really weird. And slimy.