Directed by Jeff LiebermanMovie Review by Greg Goodsell
In elementary school, us kids passed around a story about how one man took LSD and didn’t have a trip until exactly one year later – wreaking havoc as he was driving a school bus. While by all accounts, if the story was true, the man in question probably just scored some bunk acid. This bit of apocryphal information seemingly informed writer-director Jeff (Squirm) Lieberman’s Blue Sunshine, wherein some former hippie Stanford University students feel the effects of the titular drug and turn into raving, bald maniacs ten years afterwards.
Blue Sunshine begins with a Big Chill-like reunion in a mountain cabin when someone pulls the wig off a largely untalented comedian and singer, revealing him to be a balding, wide-eyed lunatic. Stuffing three screaming ladies into the cabin’s fireplace, the film’s erstwhile hero Jerry (future soft-core porn director Zalman King) is fingered for the killings. Hitting the road, Jerry eventually traces the murderous outbreaks to a strain of LSD downed by college students during the hippie era. Jerry traces the distribution of the drug to former hippie guru to aspiring conservative politician Mark Godard (from TV’s “Lost in Space”). Blue Sunshine’s climactic scene, wherein Jerry confronts a raging bald lunatic is set in a shopping mall disco, adds yet another layer of social commentary. The fact that Jerry saves the day due to the advice given to him by a gun shop owner – a longtime symbol of institutionalized evil as seen by the Left, leaves the audience much to ponder.
