Blue Sunshine

 (1978) *** 1/2

If last year was my year for asses then this year is my year for terrible baldness. Several old college mates are having an adverse reaction to a particular strain of LSD they took back in the ‘60’s. It causes them to go bald then turn into raging murderous lunatics. Jerry Zipkin is at a party when one of his friends gets his wig ripped off then flips out and chucks one of the girls into the fire after standing on a chair imitating Rodan (the monster not Rodin the artist). He goes on a murderous rampage until Jerry finally pushes him in front of a truck to put an end to it. Jerry winds up being blamed for the whole sordid mess and must go on the run until he can figure things out and clear his name.

 

Waiter! I found pubes in my salad!

This bizarre and really fun film stars Zalman King who I only knew of from 9 ½ Weeks and Red Shoe Diary fame. I thought he was strictly a writer/producer yet here he is acting his little butt off, picking up clues of discarded hair and running about in desperation. His frequent outbursts always caught me off guard, I kept wondering if he had secretly taken the acid too. I can fully understand why this film has such a cult following, ten minutes into it and I knew I had to add this to my collection. It’s ridiculous over-acted psychopathic silliness and I loved every minute of it. I wonder if such a film actually scared people in 1978? I can imagine some poor former hippie thinking, “Oh shit I took blue sunshine and I’m starting to go bald too!” It would have been a hell of an excuse to get rid of an annoying spouse. Groovy film, can you dig?