Blue Sunshine (1976)
Written and directed by Jeff Lieberman

Memorable horror flick in which people who took a bad strain of acid (called "Blue Sunshine") back in the 60s find themselves losing their hair and going psychotic 10 years later. It ought to be typical low-budget shlock, but the direction is tight, the suspense genuine, and the photography is consistently striking.

Just when you're about to dismiss it as a "bad movie," something unique happens that lets you know this is isn't one of those flicks you just sit and laugh at. It vacillates between creepy zombie-movie chills and an ambiguous real-world nefariousness that at times even recalls Coppola's The Conversation.

Zalman King (later known as the mastermind behind many a late-night cable skin-flick) plays Jerry Zipkin, whose encounter with one of the Blue Sunshine psychos leads him to try to piece together the mystery behind what is happening to these folks. He traces is it back to the bad acid, and to the college drug dealer who supplied it … now an "upstanding" would-be Congressman!

King delivers a totally enigmatic performance, unlike any actor I've ever seen. Not in a good way, though I can't say he's bad, either. He whispers most of his lines and gets really close into the personal space of each actor he shares the screen with. After awhile you sort of want him to be throttled by one of the psychos, just because he's such a weirdo. Plus, he makes Donald Fagen of Steely Dan look extremely handsome by comparison … not your typical leading man.

The rest of the cast is capable in a 70s-TV sort of way … the kinds of character actors you'd find filling out episodes of "SWAT" or "Starsky & Hutch." Which, personally, I find very comforting. Among the familiar faces are Robert Walden (later of "Brothers" "fame") and Alice Ghostley (of "Bewitched" and Grease).

Some parts are actually scary, others just tense, but it never gets boring and even provides a little food for thought, coming across as a commentary on the consequences of youthful indulgence. The climax of the film, wherein one of the Blue Sunshiners goes apeshit in a disco, seems like a statement on the aging 60s generation rejecting what it has become … after all, didn't those folks hope to die before they got old?

The ending is bafflingly abrupt, and hard to peg as either cheekily fake or dead seirous. Ultimately I can't say I was unsatisfied so much as outfoxed.

The DVD has been slavishly transferred, resulting in a beautiful presentation that, if you think about it, was probably not fully deserved. But it may help to establish Blue Sunshine as a minor piece of genius, instead of the grainy old cult movie it has heretofore been.

Review by Dr. Baptist