swellzombie

Funny concept, not especially funny to sit through. I wished I was drunk. I appreciate the creative recreation of the dialoge and the revamping of some of the characters. That was funny. It just wasn't funny enough. I think that the creator Lowell Mason, must have known this and had to insert his own `boredom breaks'. So throughout the whole film there are short films that he did or just fireworks. That kind of stuff made it a bit more interesting and definitely gave it a `what the.' factor. It's worth a watch if you need something for a party.

Another really great Something Weird Video. Made 1968, Alice in Acidland is part LSD scare film and part psychidelic trip film. It's actually really swell. The first half that shows `Alice' as a naïve girl, who gets invited to a pool party. While there she gets drunk for the first time and then has a bath with the female host of the party. After that first encounter Alice becomes apart of that hip group. She frequents these orgy parties and meets Animal. The orgy scenes and the nudity are really tasteful and very pin-up like. At one party a new girl who wants to be apart of the group takes acid and then is raped by Animal. Alice takes acid afterwards, even though she was totally aware of what happened to her friend. After reflecting on the disturbing event that her friend suffered she trips hard. Much like Wizard of OZ, Alice in Acidland turns from black and white to full psychidelic color. There are a lot of super-imposed images of her friend and a lot of Alice dancing nude with patters and colors projected on her. I found the whole movie to be interesting to watch. The black and white half was shot well for the time and actually looks better than some later films. The tripping scene was very much like an opening sequence for a James Bond movie. It was traditionally psychidelic, not really intense like Psyched by the 4-D Witch. In the end a lesson is supposed to be learned. But who knows, it looked sort of fun.

So Tromaville's Lloyd Kaufman proves that he's a goofy guy. This 1971 directorial debut of Lloyd Kaufman isn't as great as say... Toxic Avenger, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., or Surf Nazi's Must Die, etc. But it is pretty interesting. If you go into it expecting very little Troma then you should be all set. The story is about a guy who, played by Lloyd is apparently a screw up and isn't concerned with what `important'. He's goofy and dorky and people make fun of him. But he's in love with a girl who works at a coffee shop and impressing her is important to him. Lloyd did something in this film that I don't think I've seen before. The base of the story was about Abercrombie running around and being silly. But when he runs into a new character like the Preacher or the guy who runs the adult bookstore, the movie changes. It suddenly becomes a black and white suedo-documentary. The characters, are asked questions by Lloyd then they answer them as their respectively as the person they're supposed to be. It gives the story some good depth. It's really a neat idea and it's too bad that the rest film doesn't carry it better. The ideas are there and it is surprising that movies like the ones listed above spawned from this.

If you're a die-hard Troma fan, you probably won't like this. It's too artsy and very slow. Plus, there are no heads being squashed or nudity.