There’s a great story to be told about the lingering aftereffects
of ’60s experiments with LSD, but Blue
Sunshine is not that story. Instead, it’s a so-so horror picture in which
an interesting concept gets bludgeoned by uninspired execution. The movie
begins at a party, where several young adults listen to their friend Frannie (Richard
Crystal) sing tunes and tell jokes. Then someone playfully yanks Frannie’s
hair, revealing that he’s wearing a wig and that his scalp is bald except for a
few patches of stringy hair. Frannie flees the party, only to return later in a
crazed state and kill two women who are lingering at the location after the
party has nearly ended. Discovered by Jerry (Zalman King), another
late-to-leave party guest, Frannie runs from the party house to a nearby highway
and gets run over by a truck. Through unfortunate circumstance, Jerry ends up
under suspicion not only for the maniac’s death but also for the murders of the
two women.
Thus, in the mode of a conspiracy thriller, Jerry becomes a fugitive
determined to explain why his friend went crazy—a quest that gains urgency when
he realizes that others have experienced similar homicidal breakdowns.
Eventually, with the covert help of his pal David (Robert Walden), a physician
with knowledge of illegal drugs, Jerry realizes the psychotic episodes involve users
of a form of LSD called “Blue Sunshine,” which was sold years ago by Edward (Mark
Goddard), who is now a respectable citizen running for Congress. Predictably, Jerry
has a hard time proving his wild theory that a fast-rising politician is responsible
for the spread of a mind-altering substance that destroys its users.
Although
writer-director Jeff Lieberman’s filmmaking is relatively slick—his camerawork
is calm and sensible, his storytelling lucid—he can’t really overcome confused
intentions. On one level, the picture is a dark drama about the dangers of
amateurs creating their own brands of LSD. But on every other level, Blue Sunshine is a tacky horror flick,
complete with scenes of housewives freaking out and attacking their children
with butcher knives. Plus, the acting runs the gamut from terrible to
workmanlike—nobody in the cast of Blue
Sunshine is particularly credible except for Walden, a fine character
player known for All the President’s Men
(1976) and the TV series Lou Grant
(1977-1982). King, who later produced and/or directed myriad ’80s and ’90s softcore movies, is an
especially weak link, offering bug-eyed intensity instead of real acting. And
while the murder scenes are undeniably creepy, they’re also a bit goofy, with
each murderer suddenly revealing a bald scalp before shifting into pyschosis.
Blue Sunshine: FUNKY
4 comments:
It has all the technical proficiency, atmosphere and zest of a 70s porn film or TV detective series. Deadly pacing, uninteresting locations, blah performances and absurd scenes of people with hair falling out or should I say with people removing a wig.
One man's meat is another man's poison. Thankfully we don't all think the same way. I thought it a decent shocker with an original idea as its premise. There aren't many such movies around today. CGI has ruined cinema forever.
The scenes of people clutching their heads because of sensitivity to noise look like a parody of an Excederin headache commercial! LOL!
Never seen Excederin headache commercials so I can't comment. Perhaps it was done deliberately. There is quite a lot of satire in this movie.
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