Electric Shades of Grey

There are myriad hippie zeitgeist films from the late '60s and early '70s that vary widely in quality and originality. This is one of the worst. The star actor has no charisma, the nonlinear storytelling is not effective, the moral commentary is trite, the scenes about racial justice seem randomly inserted, the female love interest is underdeveloped (considering the protagonist is a priest), and it's not even a road movie-- it's a driving-around movie.

A bleak, meandering slog through the ridiculously miserable life of the titular psychedelic priest.

For the most part this film was just plain depressing. The story is very disjointed; lingering around for a few dull scenes before hopping to the next event that is supposed to happen, then something tragic occurs, then they linger around some more, then cue the next event, and repeat.

However... it's not all bad. The headache-inducing camera work (particularly the intense zooming and the weird fisheye lens hippies) can be quite interesting to look at. Or, kind of funny, at least. Unfortunately though, it's onlyabout 30% funny stuff, and 70% boring misery.

I love movies like this. It reminded me of The Young Graduates in that it involves driving and thinking about what to do in life. Sometimes you wonder why the character is acting that way and making such bad decisions, but other times you wish you could be that character, freely driving around in search or yourself.

This movie deals with racism in a shocking and unbelievable way. The white characters act very strangely, in my opinion, when they see a black man purposely killed by white racist cops. They also act strangely when they see a baby being born in a van. The priest also reacts rather rudely when someone claims to be in love with him. I think I would have cared a lot more about what was going on and thought things out better than these characters, but the crazy way they act just makes the movie more interesting.

There are some odd plot twists and things are not explained very well at some parts. It seems like the creators just wanted to cram as much crazy stuff into the movie as they could, which is why it seems unbelievable. But to me, the unrealistic nature of events in the film make me love it even more. I am entertained by the idea that a priest gets slipped some LSD by some apathetic kids, or by the idea that a woman in labor would be sitting on the side of the road in the middle of the desert. It's a story that takes a stab at being deep and socially commentary but really ends up confusing you in a fun, drugged out way.

This review is being written by someone who may very well be the only person on planet Earth that genuinely loves this movie. But, why, though? I can tell the difference between quality acting and storytelling, and, well, this movie. Aw, who the hell knows? I guess I just got a thing for the obscure. But Electric Shades Of Grey is more than just an inept Exploitation obscurity, with really, really lousy acting... Alright, fine!! That pretty much the size of it, but then again, I never claimed to have good taste in bad cinema. Whether this is really that bad of a movie, or not, is a matter of opinion, but really, what good did it do to wait 30 years before releasing it?

Electric Shades of Grey begins in a way that a movie of this type should, with an accidental acid trip. A polite but rather self-righteous priest, with questionable hair named John drinks some cola spiked by some fun-lovin' hippie kids. After an extremely mind-bending day, bewildered and discouraged with religion, and life in general John quits the church and embarks on a road trip of self-discovery. After a while, John comes across a hitchhiker, a gorgeous hippie chick named Sunny. Of course he gives her a ride, the two hit it off just fine, deciding to hang together, camping out at night, getting high, really enjoying life. After an intense day involving birth, death and racism, Sunny professes her love for John. To her, John represents what love is all about. Unfortunately our ex-priest is seemingly still a bit cranky over his mind being shattered by LSD and whatnot, so not only does he turn the poor girl down, but he's rather cruel about it. Heartbroken, Sunny cuts out early the next morning, before John is awake, and naturally, after it's too late, our bewildered priest has a change of heart and from then on dedicates the remainder of his road trip to reuniting with Sunny, a potential soul mate. Does he find her? Does he just get high and give up? Or does everything just go straight to hell? To find out, pick up this under-appreciated obscurity from the good people at Something Weird Video.

Electric Shades of Grey aka The Psychedelic Priest is a masterpiece. no offense to the late, great Dennis Hopper but Forget about Easy Rider. Electric Shades of Grey represents that era in a much deeper, more realistic way. It's also more amateur, and raw, and less tampered with (no script), so naturally it seems more real. A very worthwhile DVD, part of a double feature, along with The Hooked Generation. Even a commentary track is provided by Frank Henenlotter, and director William Grefe', which was lovely, although, they did spend 90% of the duration talking about other stuff, which is a shame, considering how unknown this film is. Nonetheless, Electric Shades Of Grey is a pleasant, little gem for those who don't take life (or movies) too seriously, but also for those with a sentimental side, and maybe a soft spot for drug/hippie movies with heart. 7/10

Electric Shades of Grey (2001)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Father John (John Darrell) begins to question his faith and walks away from the church. Soon afterwards he begins a downward spiral where drugs come into play.

ELECTRIC SHADES OF GREY was originally filmed in 1971 but it never got released until four decades later when Something Weird Video rescued it. Was it a lost Holy Grail? Umm...not at all. If you're a fan of Something Weird then you already know that countless psychedelic movies were made and I'd argue that they were some of the worst ever released by the studio.

This film here was directed by William Grefe and like most of his filmmography he wasn't given much of a budget and instead he's working with his talent only. As usual he at least makes a professional looking film but there's really nothing here to get excited about. For starters, there wasn't a screenplay so people are just doing stuff in front of the camera and it certainly isn't entertaining. Even worse is that there's just no real story here. Nothing makes you care about these characters or their situations.

It's easy to see why this film never saw a theatrical release.