Psycho Beach Party

Absurdity never seemed so straight and the straight and narrow never took so many turns. Psycho Beach Party is the most outrageous fun since Rocky Horror Picture Show hit the screen. Of all the films that poke fun at male-female, male-male, and female-female sexuality this summer, Psycho Beach Party takes the cake. The comparison is apt. Both films were adapted from successful small theatrical hits. Both films take innocence and sexuality to their extremes. What Rocky Horror did for monster movies, musicals and science fiction, Psycho Beach Party does to psychological thrillers, surfer/Gidget movies and slasher films. Charles Busch, the writer of the film and the play, has been New York's dirty little secret for over a decade. When Busch's "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom" was a hit downtown, I remember seeing people read the marquee, laugh, wince, then laugh again self consciously. Charles Busch brings this same combination of joy and guilt together wonderfully in Psycho Beach Party. He acts in it as well, he's the female detective that looks so damned good in that blue uniform. Its a shame theater doesn't inspire film as often as it once did. Theatrical dialogue, laced as it is the references and innuendo, requires a bit more suspension of disbelief from the audience. I'm not sure the "American Pie" generation is sophisticated enough to sit through something both silly and clever. Everyone shines in this cast, but no one outshines Chiclet. Let's leave it at that, in the wake of the "What Lies Beneath" fiasco, I'll leave the plot for people to discover. Unlike everyone at Universal Studios, I don't think people really want to know what happens before they go to the movies. Director Robert Lee King mocks the cinematic conceit of putting a film within a film not once but four times in less than a minute of screen time. It's a left, a right, a right, and a left knockout punch. And when you finish laughing about it -- King's little stunt will come back to haunt you later that night. Like Rocky Horror Picture Show, Psycho Beach Party is not the campy little trifle you thought you were being served...........

This film really grew on me. It's got great actors (namely Nicholas Brendan and Lauren Ambrose), a great throwback sense of style, and very clever dialogue. I can't tell if this film is intentionally hysterical (I think it is, but some parts...it's hard to tell.) I also really liked some of the characters, including police"woman" Monica Stark. All in all, a light-hearted summer movie, perfect for a few good laughs.

First things first: 'Psycho Beach Party' is funny, fresh, light-hearted and completely likable. It is a rare film that can walk the tight-rope between mocking a particular film genre (in this case, the "Beach Blanket" movies of the fifties and sixties) while still showing great affection for said genre. 'Psycho Beach Party' does it wonderfully. Using an obviously skewed view of these pleasant if vapid films, 'PBP' covers us in satirical humor and warmth, a tricky combination to pull off. If you have ever sat through a film in which a surf board was the star, check this one out...great fun.

Now, second: In response to Brian Bagnall's review from Canada, this film is NOT gay propoganda (just because the writer/director is gay does not make this a gay film). Gays do NOT have to have blonde hair (one of the only two agy characters has black hair...must have missed that one, huh, Brian?). The film does NOT portray the era as demeaning to women (the women in this film are some of the most empowered I have seen in a long time). And if you can not suspend your disbelief for long enough to watch our young heroine escape from a man twice her size, you probably should not be watching a film with the word "psycho", "beach", and "party" in the title. This film looks foundly back on a time that was simpler, both in the movies and reality. Anyone who gets anything other than a Genre Spoof from this was not paying attention.

Put simply, people; 'Psycho Beach Party' is Fabu!

First of all, anyone who comes up with the movie title "Sex Kittens Go Bossa Nova" deserves some sort of award or national holiday in their honor just for that alone. I was sold on this movie way before the incredibly cool opening credits rolled. Actually, we saw the trailer for it in the theater, and almost instantly and simaltaneously said, "we're there".

There's about a dozen different elements to this fun flick that would have made me see it if only one of them had been present. First, I've seen almost every 60's Beach Party movie (though I'm sure Charles Busch has most people beat on the number of times they were watched) and this is not only a hilarious parody, but the 60's detail down to the costumes, sets, make-up, and hair is so dead-on I wouldn't have been surprised to see Donna Loren or Deborah Walley show up. The soundtrack is really, really great, some of the best surf music that wasn't actually recorded in the 1960's I've ever heard. The plot is actually really clever, with one of the best twist-upon-twist endings I've ever seen. The opening credits and closing credits are great, and I'm sure any guys who didn't really want to see the movie but were dragged by their girlfriends will dig the hot Ann-Margret crossed with a Bada-Bing! girl go-go dancer.

I first heard about this movie when I read about it in Fangoria of all places. I was impressed by what I read but thought, "they better not screw this up". Once I saw about 30 seconds of the trailer I realized they knew what they were doing. The movie actually has more of an actual plot than many of the 60's beach movies did (not that either really needed one). The plot centers on a series of Blood-Feast type murders in Malibu. In their search for the killer, the female police detective (Charles Busch, who is probably the funniestof anyone in the movie) focuses on Florence (Lauren Ambrose, almost as funny), who suffers from a very entertaining form of multiple personality disorder but doesn't know it yet. There's a huge number of great supporting characters, such as her love interests Starcat and surf God Kanaka. Bettina Barnes, a B-movie actress on the lam from Hollywood, shows up to add extra glamour. Also especially funny-especially if you thought parts of those old beach movies got kind of homoerotic-are young beach studs Yo-Yo and Provoloney (next to John Waters, this movie comes up with the greatest names for characters of all time) who are suspiciously more interested in wrestling each other than checking out the chicks in bikinis.

If this weren't enough, Busch also makes almost every single line include some sort of campy and hilarious 60's lingo. If you've read or seen the play the movie was based on, you know exactly what I mean. The young cast, which could have ruined the movie if they took themselves too seriously, are talented enough to take lines like, "Is this a beach shack or the Malibu branch of the CIA?" and "They look like beatniks...should I unpack my bongos?" and make them sound fresh and funny. Considering most of them probably weren't born until a decade or so after these type of movies came out (yikes), this is pretty impressive. Ambrose is perfect as Florence "Chicklet" Forrest/Ann Bowman, and if Busch (who played the part onstage)had to tutor her at all on how to play it, she picked it up pretty well. Busch has less scenes, but almost steals the movie- he's probably the funniest and best in drag I've seen since Divine. His facial expressions alone made me laugh so hard when I saw it in the theater that I was worried the usher might come over. Fortunately everyone else was laughing just as hard.

There's plenty of shockingly raunchy jokes, but somehow the whole movie still seems as innocent and good-natured as if it were rated G. Ok, maybe not G, but you get the idea. Everyone involved in the making of the film obviously loved what they were doing. A completely fun, clever but brainless, campy movie with an awesome cast, screenplay, wardrobe and soundtrack, perfect from the font used in the opening credits to the to-die-for tiki torches. It's pretty hard for me to think of anyone who this movie wouldn't at least bring a smile to. You don't even need to have seen a Beach Party movie to have a good time-it's not all in-jokey (though those who grew up on those movies will probably notice and appreciate some smaller details more). Even if you have no idea who Annette and Frankie are, as long as have a sense of humor, you should still enjoy it. If you liked Hairspray...well, now that I think of it, most fans of Hairspray probably have already seen the movie. If you liked that movie, if you're into surf or just surf music, or 60's movies, or if your favorite cocktail comes in a coconut shell or tiki mug, drop everything and rent this movie now if you haven't seen it yet. You'll have a blast. 10/10 *s. Dig?

Before there was SCARY MOVIE, there was PSYCHO BEACH PARTY! That says it all, man!

Charles Busch gives us Charles Busch in a chilling, wicked satire of teen slasher flicks, drive-in movies, and hormones as they were in the 1960s. There has been nothing like this movie since PIZZA WAITRESS WITH THREE HEADS. Golly!

Puns and double meanings fly like sand on a windy day. Plus there is hidden wisdom such as, "Chastity lost is never found." And gay love as a cure for digestive problems? Who knew?

Gidget meets Mae West, and Matt Kessler with a Swedish accent. I could go on, but I won't. This is a Shakespearian play within a movie within a movie. Go figure. See it and have fun.