Blue Sunshine

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating, underrated film.
Review: Blue Sunshine (Jeff Lieberman, 1976)...Originally released in 1976, Blue Sunshine was directed by Jeff Lieberman. In the same year, Lieberman also made the creepy 'killer worm' movie Squirm, and in the 1980s he was responsible for the killer-in-the-woods flick Just Before Dawn (1981) and the science-fiction comedy Remote Control (1987). His last input into a movie released to theatres was as the screenwriter for The Neverending Story III (Peter MacDonald, 1994).Lieberman's second film, Blue Sunshine is a patchwork quilt of elements borrowed from horror, satire, science-fiction, Sixties drug movies, counterculture myths, urban legend and conspiracy theories. Like Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1973), Don Siegel's Dirty Harry (1971) and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1972) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Blue Sunshine is a reaction against the counterculture of the 1960s, detailing the decline of the youthful idealism associated with the late 60s as it exploded into the raw reality of the 1970s: the cumulative effect of the disastrous Stones concert at Altamont Speedway, the failure of American forces in Vietnam, the shootings at Kent State University and finally Watergate was to add to an increased sense of alienation and despair within American society. This despair suggested that the counterculture 'project' had failed: love, peace and happiness had no place in the society of the early 1970s. The most memorable films made during this period are characterized by a sense of lethargy, an 'energylessness' that tapped into the zeitgeist within American society. Blue Sunshine is no exception, and for Nathanael Thompson (2003) the film 'now feels prophetic in its depiction of a post-1960s culture ripping apart at the seams as it tries to dissolve back into normal, capitalist society': like many genre/exploitation films, Blue Sunshine appears to be a way of 'working through' and coming to terms with the problems faced by the society in which it was produced. In a nod to one of Hitchcock's favourite plot devices, Blue Sunshine stars Zalman King as a man wrongly accused of murder. In the 1980s, King developed a reputation as a maker of erotic dramas: he was responsible for Two Moon Junction (1988), Nine and a Half Weeks (1986), Lake Consequence (1993) and the HBO television series Red Shoe Diaries (1992-2001). Here, he certainly does not prove his skills as an actor, but he gives a suitably hysterical, paranoid performance as a man embroiled in a mystery: a group of apparently respectable, upstanding Stanford graduates are losing their hair and turning into psychotic killers. The source of their psychosis appears to be a form of Lysergic Acid called 'Blue Sunshine' that they took ten years earlier, and which releases a 'chomosomal aberration' in their biological makeup. Around the basic premise, Lieberman constructs an increasingly paranoid, edgy satire, the targets of which are the idealistic baby-boomer hippies who 'sold out' and became the money-driven yuppies who allowed the New Right to seize power in the late 1970s. This narrative forms the basis for an extremely paranoid film that transgresses taboos as easily as it crosses traditional genre distinctions: for example, in one of the most memorable setpieces, a babysitter attacks her charges with a knife, and in the combative opening sequence a clown (Richard Crystal, Billy Crystal's brother) murders guests at a party by forcing them into an open fireplace. Within this apparently exploitative narrative, Lieberman includes some bizarre twists to rival those found in Larry Cohen's similarly perverse horror/SF thriller God Told Me To (also known as Demon, and released the same year as Blue Sunshine). Lieberman also executes some satirical setpieces: for example, a massacre in a discotheque and a sequence in which one of the 'infected' stalks a shopping mall (two years before Romero's consumerist satire Dawn of the Dead). Blue Sunshine had a strong impact on many of the young people who became involved in the Punk scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s: it spoke to their nihilistic instinct, hatred of hippies, and in its exploration of the boundaries of taste it shared its ironic stance with the early Punks. Consequently, in the late 1970s and early 1980s the film developed a strong cult following among young people, and in 1983, working with Steve Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees) The Cure's Robert Smith produced an album named after the film. Often described as 'Cronenberg-esque', Blue Sunshine was released before the films that went on to define the style of David Cronenberg (The Brood, 1978; Scanners, 1981; Videodrome, 1982), and consequently pre-dates Cronenberg's preoccupation with viruses that affect both human biology and psychology. Thompson claims that, like Cronenberg's movies, in Blue sunshine 'there isn't much aggressive shock material on display; the unease of [the film] lies instead in its queasy sense of the mind and body breaking down without any control' (op cit). The lack of 'shock material may deter some viewers, and in his otherwise enthusiastic review Thompson admits that '[f]or horror fans raised during the slasher glut of the '80s and afterwards, adapting to the socially twisted terrors of the 1970s can be an uphill battle' (op cit). However, like most Seventies horror movies (Saul Bass' Phase IV, 1974; Jerrold Freedman's made-for-television The Chill Factor/A Cold Night's Death, 1973), Blue Sunshine rewards patient viewers with a glimpse into a society (and a physiology) on the brink of collapse...

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating, underrated film.
Review: Blue Sunshine (Jeff Lieberman, 1976)...Originally released in 1976, Blue Sunshine was directed by Jeff Lieberman. In the same year, Lieberman also made the creepy `killer worm' movie Squirm, and in the 1980s he was responsible for the killer-in-the-woods flick Just Before Dawn (1981) and the science-fiction comedy Remote Control (1987). His last input into a movie released to theatres was as the screenwriter for The Neverending Story III (Peter MacDonald, 1994).Lieberman's second film, Blue Sunshine is a patchwork quilt of elements borrowed from horror, satire, science-fiction, Sixties drug movies, counterculture myths, urban legend and conspiracy theories. Like Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1973), Don Siegel's Dirty Harry (1971) and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1972) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Blue Sunshine is a reaction against the counterculture of the 1960s, detailing the decline of the youthful idealism associated with the late 60s as it exploded into the raw reality of the 1970s: the cumulative effect of the disastrous Stones concert at Altamont Speedway, the failure of American forces in Vietnam, the shootings at Kent State University and finally Watergate was to add to an increased sense of alienation and despair within American society. This despair suggested that the counterculture `project' had failed: love, peace and happiness had no place in the society of the early 1970s. The most memorable films made during this period are characterized by a sense of lethargy, an `energylessness' that tapped into the zeitgeist within American society. Blue Sunshine is no exception, and for Nathanael Thompson (2003) the film `now feels prophetic in its depiction of a post-1960s culture ripping apart at the seams as it tries to dissolve back into normal, capitalist society': like many genre/exploitation films, Blue Sunshine appears to be a way of `working through' and coming to terms with the problems faced by the society in which it was produced. In a nod to one of Hitchcock's favourite plot devices, Blue Sunshine stars Zalman King as a man wrongly accused of murder. In the 1980s, King developed a reputation as a maker of erotic dramas: he was responsible for Two Moon Junction (1988), Nine and a Half Weeks (1986), Lake Consequence (1993) and the HBO television series Red Shoe Diaries (1992-2001). Here, he certainly does not prove his skills as an actor, but he gives a suitably hysterical, paranoid performance as a man embroiled in a mystery: a group of apparently respectable, upstanding Stanford graduates are losing their hair and turning into psychotic killers. The source of their psychosis appears to be a form of Lysergic Acid called `Blue Sunshine' that they took ten years earlier, and which releases a `chomosomal aberration' in their biological makeup. Around the basic premise, Lieberman constructs an increasingly paranoid, edgy satire, the targets of which are the idealistic baby-boomer hippies who `sold out' and became the money-driven yuppies who allowed the New Right to seize power in the late 1970s. This narrative forms the basis for an extremely paranoid film that transgresses taboos as easily as it crosses traditional genre distinctions: for example, in one of the most memorable setpieces, a babysitter attacks her charges with a knife, and in the combative opening sequence a clown (Richard Crystal, Billy Crystal's brother) murders guests at a party by forcing them into an open fireplace. Within this apparently exploitative narrative, Lieberman includes some bizarre twists to rival those found in Larry Cohen's similarly perverse horror/SF thriller God Told Me To (also known as Demon, and released the same year as Blue Sunshine). Lieberman also executes some satirical setpieces: for example, a massacre in a discotheque and a sequence in which one of the `infected' stalks a shopping mall (two years before Romero's consumerist satire Dawn of the Dead). Blue Sunshine had a strong impact on many of the young people who became involved in the Punk scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s: it spoke to their nihilistic instinct, hatred of hippies, and in its exploration of the boundaries of taste it shared its ironic stance with the early Punks. Consequently, in the late 1970s and early 1980s the film developed a strong cult following among young people, and in 1983, working with Steve Severin (Siouxsie and the Banshees) The Cure's Robert Smith produced an album named after the film. Often described as `Cronenberg-esque', Blue Sunshine was released before the films that went on to define the style of David Cronenberg (The Brood, 1978; Scanners, 1981; Videodrome, 1982), and consequently pre-dates Cronenberg's preoccupation with viruses that affect both human biology and psychology. Thompson claims that, like Cronenberg's movies, in Blue sunshine `there isn't much aggressive shock material on display; the unease of [the film] lies instead in its queasy sense of the mind and body breaking down without any control' (op cit). The lack of `shock material may deter some viewers, and in his otherwise enthusiastic review Thompson admits that `[f]or horror fans raised during the slasher glut of the '80s and afterwards, adapting to the socially twisted terrors of the 1970s can be an uphill battle' (op cit). However, like most Seventies horror movies (Saul Bass' Phase IV, 1974; Jerrold Freedman's made-for-television The Chill Factor/A Cold Night's Death, 1973), Blue Sunshine rewards patient viewers with a glimpse into a society (and a physiology) on the brink of collapse...

Rating:
Summary: Bald...and Deadly!
Review: During the peak of the popularity of psychedelics (i.e., hallucinogens) in the 1960s and 1970s, there circulated various urban legends about the frightening, wildly unpredictable, and sometimes fatal side effects of sub-standard LSD that was purportedly cooked up by amateur chemists in makeshift underground labs. In his 1978 opus BLUE SUNSHINE, low-budget auteur Jeff Lieberman exploits these legends to create a far-out and funky counter-culture thriller.

The story revolves around a loose-knit group of young professionals who have all outgrown the rebellious and reckless atmosphere of the 1960s and are now trying to establish careers and families. When several among them start to inexplicably lose their hair, foam at the mouth, and go on murderous rampages, one man wastes no time in seeking to uncover the reason behind his friends' bizarre behavior and physical transformation. He soon discovers that the only element common to all those who have flipped out is their experimentation ten years earlier with a form of LSD known on the street as Blue Sunshine. But when he tries to go public with this information, he finds himself in the middle of a dangerous political cover-up.

(SF fans will recognize actor Mark Goddard from his role as Major Don West on TV's original LOST IN SPACE. Here he plays the slimy, smarmy up-and-coming politician with something to hide.)

BLUE SUNSHINE is to LSD what 1938's REEFER MADNESS (a.k.a. TELL YOUR CHILDREN) is to marijuana, the one difference being that BLUE SUNSHINE is intentionally ludicrous. So BLUE SUNSHINE is actually a horror comedy. Unfortunately, many critics of the era interpreted the film as a modern cautionary tale meant to warn ladder-climbing yuppies--many of whom were formerly drug-taking hippies--that their past and present actions may have long-term consequences. But it's hard to imagine that any moviegoer would view the outrageous plot, the histrionic acting, and the ultra-cheap FX as anything other than the elements of a tongue-in-cheek spoof, especially considering the times in which it was made. Indeed, in the film's credits, Jeff Lieberman and crew even offer a clue to their true intentions--they drolly thank Dr. Timothy Leary for popularizing LSD thereby making BLUE SUNSHINE possible!

It requires a certain kind of cinematic taste to understand and enjoy BLUE SUNSHINE, and those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s are likely to appreciate it most, as a certain level of familiarity with the counter-culture of the era is required to get all of the "jokes." Of course, aficionados of trash pics and cult flicks will probably want to take a gander, too. As for everybody else, it's sort of a toss-up.

The limited-edition DVD from Synapse offers the flick in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio and provides the option for sound in either a new Dolby Digital 5.1 Remix or the original mono. There are a few bonus features on the DVD itself, and the package also includes a CD featuring the film's original musical soundtrack. Well worth the price of admission, at least for those who enjoy basking in BLUE SUNSHINE.

Rating:
Summary: Great lost gem
Review: FILM REVIEW---this is a great psychological horror film, easily on par with anything Cronenberg did. The only drawback is the very [weak] ending. Some scenes (especially the baby-sitter attacking kids with knife one) are very intense and effective. DVD REVIEW---Synapse Films truly did a great job: The bonus soundtrack CD is excellent and spooky, the Jeff Lieberman interview is fantastic, his short film is interesting, and the trailer is rare and a must for any collector. A must for any horror fan's collection.

Rating:
Summary: Fun stuff
Review: Fun, if you don't take productions values, etc too seriously. Anyone saying that the movie stinks because of "bungled direction", etc, either wasn't old enough in the 60's and 70's to appreciate what this movie is, which is pure, unvarnished B grade fodder. I admit I'm biased, I love this kind of schlock.

However, the premise is an interesting one, and Jeff did a halfway credible job (In B horror flicks this is high praise)directing it. What amazes me is seeing it again after all these years and realizing that the cast is chock full of yet_to_be's and used_to_be's...something I wouldn't have realized while watching it for the first time in a German Student Art-Film House. Speaking of which, I first saw Assault on Precinct 13 there, another nifty lil low budge worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: Fun stuff
Review: Fun, if you don't take productions values, etc too seriously. Anyone saying that the movie stinks because of "bungled direction", etc, either wasn't old enough in the 60's and 70's to appreciate what this movie is, which is pure, unvarnished B grade fodder. I admit I'm biased, I love this kind of schlock.

However, the premise is an interesting one, and Jeff did a halfway credible job (In B horror flicks this is high praise)directing it. What amazes me is seeing it again after all these years and realizing that the cast is chock full of yet_to_be's and used_to_be's...something I wouldn't have realized while watching it for the first time in a German Student Art-Film House. Speaking of which, I first saw Assault on Precinct 13 there, another nifty lil low budge worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: Fun stuff
Review: Fun, if you don't take productions values, etc too seriously. Anyone saying that the movie stinks because of "bungled direction", etc, either wasn't old enough in the 60's and 70's to appreciate what this movie is, which is pure, unvarnished B grade fodder. I admit I'm biased, I love this kind of schlock.

However, the premise is an interesting one, and Jeff did a halfway credible job (In B horror flicks this is high praise)directing it. What amazes me is seeing it again after all these years and realizing that the cast is chock full of yet_to_be's and used_to_be's...something I wouldn't have realized while watching it for the first time in a German Student Art-Film House. Speaking of which, I first saw Assault on Precinct 13 there, another nifty lil low budge worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Believe the Hype
Review: I bought this movie sight unseen based soley on its concept and reputation. My bad.

This movie takes an interesting concept and sinks it with pedestrian direction and a reluctance to see its story through. It is a shame because they could have made a truly interesting film without maxing out the budget.

The director, Lieberman, seems reluctant and unwilling to truly deal with the dark/silly idea at the core of his story. 60's college radicals drop some acid called Blue Sunshine. Ten years later it catches up with them-their hair falls out and they become kill crazy lunatics. This is a great jumping off point for either incisive social satire and/or over the top horror thrills. This film provides neither. It is much too timid to deliver on the horror(the kids survive the attack by their babysitter?!) and it does not follow through on the satire either(so yesterday's drug dealers can become tomorrow's politician...And?...). Oh, and its true, Zalman King is godawful in the lead.

Somewhere on the disk they make mention of the fact that a network TV station wanted to buy this film and air it as a TV movie of the week. It makes sense. In fact, if it were a TV movie of the week I would have been more impressed. But no, this is supposed to be a lost gem of an exploitation film and let me tell you it is not. It takes a great concept and renders it impotent by running it through the hack-Hitchcock treadmill. Boring.

Worth a rental maybe but do not buy it unless you are a Fan.

Rating:
Summary: An Undiscovered Gem Of '70s Horror Movies!
Review: Jeff Lieberman's BLUE SUNSHINE is the ultimate anti-drug message and a fine horror movie. It's all about an LSD-type drug made in 1967 made in Stanford University that causes the user to spontaneously go berserk (and bald) ten years later to the date of its ingestion. Now a friend (RED SHOE DIARIES Zalman King) of one of the users must get to the bottom of this tangled web. The best thing about BLUE SUNSHINE is that Lieberman evokes Alfred Hitchcock almost without trying; one of his inspirations was Brian DePalma (who made CARRIE the same year this was made) and Lieberman lays on the style much like DePalma did. BLUE SUNSHINE is also a brilliant commentary on the transition of the social climate from the 1960's to the 1970's and the consequences of the '60s movements, mainly drug-related, and it's just as relevant today (especially after 28 DAYS LATER) as it was in 1976! The music is also creepy and creates the perfect atmosphere of tension and paranoia necessary for the subject matter at hand (the soundtrack is included in this fine DVD limited edition). BLUE SUNSHINE is a movie that is definetly worth discovery, especially with remakes of '70s gems THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and DAWN OF THE DEAD! Definetly check this one out; your life may depend on it!

Rating:
Summary: Don't drop out before you watch this
Review: Most of the film reviews I've read of "Blue Sunshine" knock it to no end, citing "bad acting", an "absurd plot", et al. That's bull. This movie has the angsty flavor of a Hitchcock film with some time period-commentary thrown in. The mood of surreality and displacement is astounding.

Admittedly, not all of it makes sense, but I hardly think that's a viable complaint considering the way mainstream movies usually deal with plot. The film starts out innocently enough, with a group of (old college buddies) having a party. When a particularly goofy, Frank Sinatra looking character bends over to kiss someone else's girlfriend, he is accosted and his hair is pulled off. We see that he is completely bald, and his eyes bug out of their sockets. This a really chilling scene. He then proceeds to go completely bonzo and massacre his friends, looking like a character from Planet 9 From Outer Space on acid (no pun intended). The hero of the film chases him and he is run over by a truck. From here, things start to get really, really trippy.

Perhaps the most truly scary scene is when our hero is trying to get to the bottom of the "Blue Sunshine" phenomenon, speaking to a pill popping housewife who he believes was given the LSD by her former husband who is now a politican. After she throws him it out, believing his motives to be other than they are, her children start screaming for ice cream. It is difficult to forget this scene: her eyes get wide, she removes her hair, and comes close to butchering them with a knife. Again, this poor bastard saves the kids, and ends up looking like the villain.

The last few scenes are unforgettable, with some 70's humor thrown in. For all the occasionally bad dialogue and plot holes, I would not at all call this a "B" grade movie. It creates an undeniable atmosphere of dread and paranoia. "The Ringer", a short film dealing with the illusions of pop culture and marketing, is almost better than the movie itself. This is more than worth buying.