Blue Sunshine

So I have an idea -- I'm a huge exploitation movie fan. I love the old grindhouse flicks where the filmmakers relied solely on gusto and moxy to produce their pictures, and in a lot of cases, showing up newer films who have the 300 times the budget. So I figured I'd start sharing some of the more recent grindhouse movies I've seen, so if somehow you happened across this blog, maybe you have something to rent this weekend. Anyway, I'm going to start this tradition with Blue Sunshine:



Released in 1976, the movie stars a guy named Zalman King who is wrongfully accused of murdering some people in a cabin, when in fact the actual killer was a friend of there's who goes crazy after someone rips off his toupee and reveals his hairless dome. Over time, though, our hero learns there is something much more sinister than male pattern baldness afoot. Turns out, a group of friends, while in college, all took some acid that was aptly-titled "Blue Sunshine", which causes them to lose their hair and want to murder people ten years after the fact.



A staple in any good exploitation flick is off-the-wall sillyness, and Blue Sunshine is full of it. Part slasher, part horror, part political vendetta against the dangers of LSD, there's rarely a dull moment, and actually has a somewhat decent script. Plus, the main character looks a lot like Sean Penn -- so much, in fact, that you can totally pretend it's ACTUALLY Sean Penn, and add a whole new layer of hilarity to the whole thing.

Grindhouse rating: 4/5
Actual overall rating: 2/5

Rent it here

Directed and Written by: Jeff Lieberman
Produced by: George Manasse
Starring: Zalman King, Deborah Winters, Mark Goddard, Robert Walden, Ann Cooper