Le rayon bleu

Thriller about a drug called "Blue Sunshine". It seems a bunch of kids took it in college in 1966. Ten years later it starts to affect them. They have horrible headaches...then all their hair falls out...THEN they become homicidal maniacs! Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King) is unjustly accused of the murders. While on the run from the police him and his girlfriend Alicia (Deborah Winters) try to find out what's going on. And what does politician Ed Fleming (Mark Goddard) have to do with it?

Interesting premise but this movie does have some problems. King and Winters are just dreadful actors and have zero sexual chemistry between them; some of the dialogue is horrendous (and delivered badly); the plot has huge loopholes and where's the ending? Still, I did keep watching and found it pretty good.

The plot itself is interesting; there's some great acting from Goddard and Robert Walden (as a doctor); there are some suspenseful scenes; some very violent (and bloody) murders and lots of nice directorial touches by Jeff Lieberman (love the opening credits!). This got virtually no release in 1976 and is now (understandably) a cult film. Worth catching.

Some films have a way of sticking out that is inexplicable. Explaining the plot of this movie (hippies took bad acid in the 60's and the delayed effect 10 years later is making them all homicidal bald lunatics who go berserk and kill, and only one guy can stop it all but he's on the run) is NOT the way to point out the joys of this film experience that keep one returning for more. This can only be done in one way, listing the movie's virtues:

**a memorable, creepy and weird theme song **a high level of tension even though there's no "mystery" to be solved **Zalman King's loony and inappropriate "method" acting **homicidal bald lunatics who go berserk and kill **puppets of Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand **a man going insane in a '70's disco **a cameo by one of the witches from "Bewitched" **camp humor.

There's something really satisfying about watching a woman in a robe with a bald cap on chasing around ugly, bad acting little kids with a knife. There's something wonderful about Zalman King screaming and pounding his arms against a door frame for no known reason, then walking around going "Huff! Huff! Huff!" forever after. I love how a good chunk of time is spent on a fetish-y moment when King buys a gun and is taught how to use it. If you've seen this you know what I mean. Like...hunhhh? Or why does King's girlfriend enunciate her sentences wrong, she says "I wanna GO with you!" instead of what she means, "I wanna go WITH you." She's a terrible actress, this Deborah Sweeny, but she's so spunky and has such an interesting face I can't look away. The same with King--his intensity was better suited to raping schoolgirls in "Trip With The Teacher" or being hostile in "Galaxy Of Terror," and who encouraged his "acting choice" of constantly stuffing his hands in his pockets every few seconds? There's also very little logic, conclusions are reached too quickly and what in HELL is with the junkie in the park? It all just comes out of nowhere and leaves just as quickly...

...and that's why I love this movie. Anyone can make a solid mystery, this flick is a quirk-fest. When I was young watching this on t.v. the tension of the last 20 minutes about gave me a heart attack, now it's sleep-inducing. Movies have changed a bit since then, obviously, and this probably doesn't "work" anymore. But I return to it again and again, I'm glad they gave it a good DVD re-master and included that weird and wonderful soundtrack. Oh, and did I mention the PUPPETS??

This surprisingly intriguing horror film has people turning into bald,blue-skinned killers after dropping contaminated LSD ten years before."Blue Sunshine" is more fondly remembered for it's bald,thirty-something,ex-hippie murderers who are easily the most bizarre descendants of the living dead yet to reach the silver screen.This film is not easy to categorize:it's a horror film mixed with drug movie and also features paranoid urban legends and bizarre conspiracy theories.The title of this movie is taken from the name of a bad batch of 60s acid that seems to have some rather unfortunate long-term side effects.The film is badly lit and there are some dull spots,but "Blue Sunshine" is a must-see for experimental cinema enthusiasts.7 out of 10.

Wacky horror film where a little college drug experimentation leads to murderous rage down the road. There's a great scene in a disco that's worth a watch for that alone. It's low budget horror done right and almost has a Larry Cohen feel to it.

A small group of Stanford college grads, who had taken a bad batch of LSD called "Blue Sunshine," start feeling the side-effects ten years later. Instead of bad acid flashbacks, they start losing their hair and deteriorate into erratic, sweaty, screaming, zombie-like killers that hate loud sounds.

Ambitious low-budgeter has decent performances, a few good shocks and an interesting plot to offset some dated aspects to the story (like an unintentionally funny attack at a disco) and a seemingly incomplete ending (that seems to suggest this is based on an actual case!). Political satire remains relevant today and when one of the affected lurks around a mall at the end, DAWN OF THE DEAD (which was made later) will instantly come to mind.

Star Zalman King, also in GALAXY OF TERROR (1981), went on to direct and produce a record number of 90s erotic movies and TV series (RED SHOE DIARIES). The director also made SQURIM, JUST BEFORE DAWN and REMOTE CONTROL, all above average low-budgeters.

Score: 6 out of 10