Jeff Lieberman’s ultimate LSD scare film is now on 4k in a beautiful 3 disc release from Synapse Films
The drug freak out film; a weirdly time honored tradition in cinema. First appearing as strict (im)morality tales in films like Reefer Madness and Assassination Of Youth in the 1930’s, the genre exploded in the ‘70s as a generation started their collective hangover from the free loving and drug use of the ‘60s. Most concerned themselves with Hippies gone mad, either from a bad batch of acid (see; I Drink Your Blood), or from just being crazy hippies (see; the entire film genre that popped up after the Manson Murders).
Few, though, dealt with the lingering effects that seemed to follow those who went the straight and narrow as they aged out of the movement. In real life, it resulted in embarrassing truths being revealed decades later, such as STDs, lingering addictions, and abandoned children. In Blue Sunshine, it results in baldness and homicidal rage. One of the best of the drug freakout films, Blue Sunshine has been released on 4k by Synapse Films!
Taking place a decade after the hippy movement, Blue Sunshine follows Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King; Trip With Teacher, Galaxy Of Terror) who, after witnessing an old friend go on a homicidal rampage after having his baldness revealed, is blamed for the death of his friends. Confused and running for his life, Jerry tries to find some sort of connector between his murderous friend, and the rash of killings that are occurring throughout LA with the same modus operandi.
What he finds is that a strain of LSD, named Blue Sunshine, has had some sort of latent effect where, 10 years later, those that took it lose all their hair and go insane. The deeper he digs, the more powerful people he finds connected to it, and soon he finds both his life, and those he cares about, in danger, too.
Blue Sunshine is a rarity when it comes to films like this. The drug films of the ‘30s and ‘40s (and then again in the ‘80s and ‘90s) were just pure fear mongering propaganda, designed to scare kids away from drug usage. Even the majority of the drug freakout films of the ‘70s followed the same basic model, with drugs + hippies (sometimes bikers) being the new devilish duo, ready to kill an entire town on a hallucinatory violence binge.
Blue Sunshine, while still dealing with drug violence, doesn’t demonize its users. Here, they are people who’ve gone on to do things with their lives; police officers, doctors, politicians. Important figures in society, rather than the dredges. It doesn’t matter, though; They started a tab with LSD, and it is here to collect. It doesn’t matter that these people have moved past their “Summer Of Love” phase, and just want to live their lives, the sins of the past can not be washed away.
And, in some sort of weird way, it kinda makes this one of the most Boomer films of all time? Specifically in that very specific snapshot of the generation at the end of the ‘70s. By 1977, they are embarrassed about their youth, and just want to become “normal”, viewing their freewheeling days as abhorrent, something that has the capacity to come back and destroy their lives, and will do whatever they can to get away from it. Reagan’s landslide victories in ‘80 and ‘84 make perfect sense after watching this.
Specs:
Blue Sunshine has never looked better, presented on pristine 4k. Even though it is a film with a muted color base, it still looks immaculate; be it us watching Jerry bake in the Southern California sun, wondering if he’s going insane, or in the bright hues of a crackling fireplace filled with bodies, or the chaotic kaleidoscope colors of the climatic disco as Wayne goes on a murderous rampage.
Once you’re done watching Blue Sunshine, you’re only scratching the surface! Synapse’s release also includes director Jeff Lieberman’s first film, The Ringer, remastered in 4k, as well as two additional LSD “scare films”; LSD-25 (1967), and LSD: Insight or Insanity (1968). There are also a bevy of interviews with Jeff Lieberman, audio commentaries, and theatrical trailers.
…
Blue Sunshine is a trip, man! Just one that no one ever survives. For fans of both horror and ‘70s nihilism alike! Check out Synapse’s release of Blue Sunshine on April 15th!
