‘Blue Sunshine’ 4K Review: The Least Psychedelic LSD Film
I like weird, and Blue Sunshine (1977) is definitely on the weird side. But for an LSD horror movie? Nah. I’m not sure what else I was expecting, exactly. Just more craziness, I suppose. And while Blue Sunshine gets crazy, it doesn’t completely let its freak flag fly.
It’s not long after the credits that the first rampage begins. Frannie Scott (Richard Crystal) is doing some singing at a small party in an isolated cabin in the woods. His wig accidentally gets pulled off, revealing a mostly bald head with random patches of gnarled hair. This triggers him, and he goes into complete maniac mode, running off into the woods. This affects the partygoers less than you might think, and some of them leave to get more booze.
While they’re gone, our hero Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King) goes to look for Frannie. When he does finally find him, the man is stuffing the last of three women into a fireplace. Frannie flees into the woods yet again, and Zipkin goes after him. As it happens, he chases Frannie straight in front of a tractor-trailer. Whatever got hold of ol’ Frannie might have given him a monstrous rage, but it didn’t give him any sort of invulnerability, because he is quite dead.
Also Read: ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Review: A Disgusting Delight
As luck would have it, Zipkin gets blamed for all four murders. So he goes on the run to prove his innocence and solve the mystery of what caused Frannie to go mad.
Blue Sunshine is mostly a slow-burn mystery. The mystery, unfortunately, isn’t that interesting, and it’s something that will inevitably be solved by the audience long before Zipkin can put it together. There’s not a ton of horror, but when it happens, it’s not very gory or even very much fun. But we do get a pretty cool car chase out of the deal, which is always nice.
And what exactly are these creatures that people are getting turned into? Zombies, kind of. They’re mindless and their only goal is inflicting violence, and they’re fairly easily dispatched, like traditional zombies. But they’re not the living dead, nor is there any chance of them passing on their condition through biting and other forms of contact. So they’re not incredibly threatening, especially seeing how they’re killed pretty easily.
Also Read: ‘Bring Her Back’ Review: Sally Hawkins Stuns In Philippou Brothers’ Latest Disturbing Examination of Grief
We get a lot of stiff, nervous acting from Zalman King, who would go on to direct softcore flicks like Wild Orchid and The Red Shoe Diaries. I mean, this partly has to do with his character, who is a nervous sort anyway, especially after being accused of murder. But even before all that, during the party at the cabin, Zipkin does a lot of intense staring and such, while seeming not to enjoy himself at all. But there’s something oddly cartoonish about the way King plays the character. You end up caring very little for the guy as he moves grumpily from scene to scene.
In one of the many special feature interviews included on this Synapse 4K release, Blue Sunshine director Jeff Lieberman said that in writing the film, he wanted to take the position that all the LSD scare films from the 60’s were right and acid really did do weird things like fuck with your chromosomes. All well and good, but it makes the movie itself its own anti-LSD film. Because there’s no sense of irony to the thing, you get a real pre-Reagan just say no vibe throughout. I understand that this was an intellectual exercise on Lieberman’s part, but it leads the movie into some very conservative anti-drug directions.
Also Read: Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ Watches America Collapse With Brilliant, Impartial Indifference [Cannes 2025 Review]
It’s not spoiling anything to say that the transformations are the result of a bad batch of acid. The relatively clever part is that Lieberman had the effects of the drug kick in ten years later. It’s almost like a literal 60’s drug hangover. The decade’s idealism is gone, and all that’s left is the kill or be killed capitalism of the late 70’s.
But that might be going a little too far. You shouldn’t confuse the movie with one that has something to say.
The inherent conservatism of the film is why this film lacks almost any sort of psychedelic flourishes. It’s a very plainly shot film, and even the “blue” that the characters’ skin turns into is more of a gray. There is actually one scene, or at least part of a scene, that features some dark hallucinatory sequences, but that’s a one-shot. The rest of the movie is shot in a more objective, realistic style. To bring the director back in again, he said in another interview included on the disc that he wanted to film the movie as realistically as possible in order to make the transformation sequences stick out. Fair enough, though those scenes are rather uninspired, too.
Also Read: ‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ Pits Tom Cruise Against the ChatGPT Apocalypse [Cannes 2025 Review]
The reason I’m referencing something Lieberman said in a special feature is because it’s almost impossible to get through this disc without some of what he says being burned into your brain. This is a very Leiberman-centric special features section. You get two commentaries, both of which feature him being interviewed. There are two archival interviews, including one with Mick Garris from the 80s, which might have been interesting had my copy actually included an audio track. In addition to that, there’s a more recent Fantastic Fest Q&A.
The more interesting special features are two vintage LSD scare films, and a movie called The Ringer, which is a scare film that Leiberman himself directed. Twenty minutes long, it makes the argument that the same corporate types who push new fashions on kids are the same types who market drugs, convincing kids that the latest thing is hip and cool. It’s a pretty funny film, both intentionally and not. It’s definitely not effective as anti-drug propaganda.
This Synapse special edition is packaged nicely, and if you’re at all interested in the movie, the special features will provide you with hours of Leiberman explaining his creation. The rest of us will most likely find a modicum of enjoyment in the film, and not much else.
Special Features:
- 4K restoration of the original 35mm camera negative mastered in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio original theatrical mono and a 5.1 surround sound mix supervised by director Jeff Lieberman
- Two audio commentaries featuring director Jeff Lieberman
- New introduction to the film by director Jeff Lieberman
- Archival 2003 interview with director Jeff Lieberman
- “Lieberman on Lieberman” video interview
- Channel Z “Fantasy Film Festival” interview with Mick Garris and Jeff Lieberman
- Fantasia Film Festival 4K Premiere Q&A with moderator Michael Gingold and director Jeff Lieberman
- Anti-drug “scare films”: LSD-25 (1967) and LSD: Insight or Insanity? (1968), courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive
- Jeff Lieberman’s first film The Ringer (Remastered in 4K by Synapse Films from the original camera negative)
- Theatrical trailers
- Still gallery
- Liner notes booklet by Jeff Lieberman, featuring a chapter on the making of Blue Sunshine from his book Day of the Living Me: Adventures of a Subversive Cult Filmmaker from the Golden Age
- Limited edition fold-out poster
- Limited edition remastered CD soundtrack (13 tracks)
-
Blue Sunshine 4k Blu-ray
-
Special Features
Summary
Blue Sunshine isn’t very psychedelic for a movie about people going crazy on LSD. It’s not likely to blow any minds, and the horror is basic, at best.
Categorized:Reviews
