Horror
or at least mid-70s horror often depicted the so-called hippie movement of the
late 1960s much like the slasher horror tropes saw the fates of characters who
engaged in premarital sex: ending in death.
Often the moral of the horror story involved the consequence free
lifestyles circling back to bite those practicing it on the ass whether it
involves sex or substance abuses.
The
greatest fear purported by horror films such as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist or in David Cronenberg’s
first two features was the notion of an outside force taking control over one’s
own mind and body either through somnambulant possession or zombification
transmitted spiritually, sexually or by way of substance abuse. In writer-director Jeff Lieberman’s Blue Sunshine, one of the most peculiar
yet subtly disturbing horror films to emerge from the mid-70s, the possessor
comes in the latter form.
After
a party erupts in madness and murder after one of the patron’s hair falls out
before being killed by Jerry Zipkin (future Red
Shoe Diaries helmer Zalman King) in self-defense, the wrongfully accused
man finds himself fighting an uphill battle to clear his name while trying to
track down the source of the random bald-headed mad attacks happening in the
immediate area. His journey to uncover
the truth leads him in the direction of a form of LSD taken by Stanford college
students which may or may not be the cause of the strange attacks. Worse still, an up and coming politician may
know more about the connection between the drug and the violent outbreaks than
he’s telling.
Sharing
equal space with such strange bedfellows as Shivers,
The Crazies and Dawn of the Dead, Blue
Sunshine doesn’t go for traditional jump scares or gory deaths so much as
it creates a creeping malaise by not knowing where and when the next potential
killer will strike. Anybody and
everybody could be a potential culprit without warning with all traces of one’s
humanity and personality vanishing instantly, highlighting through
science-fiction horror the transformative nature of drug abuse. Tapping into the unknown fears of what you
can’t see being the most elusive of killers
Much
of this unease is created through the film’s string filled atonal score by
Charles Gross which evokes the dread filled avant-garde compositions of
Krzysztof Penderecki. Visually the film
has that same homegrown yet handsomely composed aesthetic of early Cronenberg
but mostly the film’s mood is driven by the soundtrack and makeup department. The bald-headed actors will remind some
viewers of the dystopian Hell of George Lucas’ THX-1138 no doubt though the performers’ eyes, shown in extreme
close up to sell the transformation from madness to murder.
Speaking
of actors, there’s much to be said about Zalman King’s completely over-the-top
acting which in another film would be campy but here feels right at home with
the possibility that he too might turn into one of the bald headed
maniacs. The supporting cast members
also turn over appropriately hysterical performances in order to illustrate the
transformation from ordinary upstanding citizen to scalp shorn psycho. Mostly though, Blue Sunshine is a showcase for writer-director Jeff Lieberman who,
like George A. Romero with Dawn of the
Dead, is able to evoke dread and a sense of vastness out of familiar
everyday settings.
Released
in the US in 1978, Blue Sunshine was
mostly forgotten over the decades before amassing a minor cult following in the
years since. Recently however, Synapse Films joined forces with director Jeff Lieberman who has overseen a new 4K digital restoration followed by a UHD limited edition release. The deluxe package also comes with a poster replica, a new 5.1 surround mix as well as the original mono track and deluxe hard box packaging. What will really intrigue fans however is the inclusion of the director's debut feature The Ringer which comes with two cuts, a rarity you're not likely to find elsewhere from this set.
Seen now, the film was
oddly prescient in critiquing the potential for danger through substance abuse
and connecting isolated incidents of violence to a larger, implacable
bureaucratic enemy. Partially an anti-drug scare flick, partially a genre picture with elements of science fiction and corporate paranoia, if nothing else the
film is an effective little thriller still able to plant some nebulous measure of
fear in the viewer about how the drugs we take can and likely will cause our
bodies to rebel against us.
--Andrew Kotwicki
