Boba_Fett1138 In all honesty, this movie had all of the ingredients in it to be a good and original genre movie and perhaps even a cult-classic but yet ultimately the movie just isn't.It's as if this movie is one big, long, anti-drugs ad, by showing what using drugs can do to you, even when you did this only maybe just once, as long as 10 years ago. But still, the movie its concept remains its strongest point. It's something original, that also really could had worked well, if only the movie got done by a bit more talented people involved, behind the camera's especially.It just isn't a very well made film, or rather said it's lacking in about every way imaginable. The story isn't flowing well because the pacing is a bit off at times and the movie doesn't really succeed in building up its tension properly. The mystery elements and some of the more standard horror elements of its time also get poorly handled, which causes the movie to be a bit too much of an ineffective one. It's such a shame, since this movie obviously had so much more potential in it, judging on its premise and some of the ideas that the movie showed had in it.But another reason why I think the movie doesn't always work out too well is because of its main character, who got played by Zalman King. He has got a good distinctive look to him but zero charisma. He's such a boring guy, who besides doesn't even speak all that much throughout the movie. Why is the main 'hero'? And why should we really care about this person in the first place? At the start of the movie it doesn't even become apparent that this guy is going to be the movie it's main character. He's just a person sitting in the background and he should had stayed there really.It's not like this movie is bad and disappointing because it's a B-type of movie. On the contrary really. The movie is quite unique with both its story and style but unfortunately the style just isn't much good. It's not cheap but just very bland looking all. I don't know, perhaps the film-makers were trying to go for a more realistic approach to the genre but it just never really paid off.I don't want to bash this movie too hard, since I still overall enjoyed it for what it was, it's just so that the movie so obviously could had been a so much better and more effective one, with just a few minor changes to it. Best thing would had been a different director. Jeff Lieberman directed the movie in even perhaps a boring kind of way, that made the movie too often feel like an ineffective one.6/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

ShadeGrenade In 1967, at the height of the Summer Of Love, a new strain of L.S.D. - Blue Sunshine - became popular among drug-taking students at Stanford University. Edward Flemming ( Mark Goddard, of the 'Lost In Space' television series ) made money selling the stuff but sensibly did not take it himself. Its horrific side-effects only kick in ten years later. The users go bald ( women included ) in the blink of an eye, grow sensitive to loud noises, their eyeballs roll in their sockets, and they get the crazy urge to kill! First victim is Frannie Scott ( Richard Crystal ) who goes berserk at a party in a log cabin, hurling three young women into a blazing fire. Jerry Zipkin ( Zalman King ) is blamed for the killings. To clear his name, he teams up with Alicia Sweeney ( Deborah Winters ). Finding a poster of Flemming in the studio of one of the Blue Sunshine victims, he goes to see the man himself. The ex-drug dealer is now running for Congress! Not wishing to see his seedy past raked up at such a delicate time, he tells Zipkin to keep away from him. But Ed's campaign manager - Wayne Mulligan ( Ray Young ) was also a Blue Sunshine taker, and begins exhibiting the first signs of madness...Written and directed by Jeff Liebermann, also responsible for cult horror movies 'Squirm' ( 1976 ) - not one to see if you've just had a spaghetti lunch - and 'Dead Before Dawn' ( 1981 ). 'Blue Sunshine' has an original idea at its core, and the shocks and scares are well coordinated. Wendy Flemming ( Ann Cooper ) goes nuts while baby sitting two children, and her creeping up on them with a knife is a very Hitchcockian image indeed. How rare to see a horror picture with a strong anti-drugs message. There's an air of melancholia to the story, as it effectively mourns the end of the hippie generation. Hero Zalman King makes a refreshing change from the usual handsome hunks who grace these sorts of pictures, looking as he does like the late comedian Charlie Callas. Goddard is slimy enough to be completely credible as a Senator! Some have commented on the 'rushed' ending. I for one think it better to have an ending like that, rather than one of those protracted 'Friday The 13th' style finales in which the killer won't stay dead. They just are not very believable. I would have liked Flemming to have been creamed by Wayne though.If the idea of bald psychos on the loose strikes you as absurd, well yes it is. But 'Blue Sunshine' is one hell of a scary film. You'll never look at Ross Kemp in quite the same way again.

Bolesroor So I was going through The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film many many years ago and one movie jumped off the page and into my head. It was called "Blue Sunshine," and the description was quite simple, something like "Tainted LSD causes people to go bald and become blood-thirsty maniacs." Naturally I was drooling...It took me over ten years to track the movie down and I must say- it was worth the wait. "Blue Sunshine" is both the title and the type of LSD with supposedly scary side-effects. The movie begins with a very clever sequence in which we tilt down from the full blue moon to three seemingly-unrelated sequences... in time they'll come together. Its clear from the very beginning that director Jeff Lieberman has every frame planned, and this holds true throughout: the movie is built like a brick house- simply, logically, building tension, with no wasted scenes or dialogue.The cinematography is great as well: Lieberman lights the whole frame, and you notice little details and textures that add to the mood. This lighting style also helps the movie stay young- aside from the fashion and cars you'd have no idea it was filmed in '76. But the best part of the movie are the scares- in major and minor keys... a man losing every hair on his head in one shot... a psychotic murderer forcing a woman's body BACK into a roaring fire as she tries to crawl out... a babysitter going insane while the children she's watching chant "We want Doctah Peppah! We want Doctah Peppah!" The disco finale is classic, and makes a sly statement about disco music and 70's culture as a Blue Sunshine user goes bats in a shopping mall nightclub. The movie ends rather quickly, and while some people complain about this, I prefer a clean break over a drawn-out exposition-filled "wrap-up." "Blue Sunshine" is not for everyone... if you don't like psychotronic movies (exploitation films, horror movies, sci-fi, etc) you won't be interested. But if you're looking for a good nightmare seek this movie out! GRADE: A

Coventry Jeff Lieberman is unquestionably one of the most fascinating filmmakers active in the field of horror and peculiar cult. The movies he accomplished are versatile and difficult to categorize, and the man himself is a rather unusual persona as well. I read a couple of interviews in which Lieberman claims not to be a fan of the genre at all and in case his films are reminiscent of others (for example "Just Before Dawn" to "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), it must be purely coincidental, as he states never to have seen the films. The last thing you could ever say about "Blue Sunshine", however, is that the idea is derived from something else. Its intriguing concept is totally unique and perhaps one of the most original ones ever to feature in a low-budgeted 70's movie. The outstanding – I even daresay brilliant – premise of "Blue Sunshine" actually makes it all the more painful to acknowledge that the overall execution of the film is slightly disappointing and even a bit boring. The opening sequences as well as the climax are sublime, but unfortunately everything in between moves at an incredibly slow tempo and it's very difficult to stay fully focused the entire playtime. The film opens with footage of several different & seemingly unrelated people beginning to suffer from physical ailments, like terrible headaches and the severe loss of hair. Jerry Zipkin even witnesses one of his friends going completely out of his mind and killing three women. Being the prime suspect in the murder investigation, Jerry discovers that his friend experimented with a type of drugs called Blue Sunshine back in college and possible the side effects only begin to show now, more than 10 years later. Jerry confronts the former junkies, who are now respectable people with important jobs, with their past and hopes to prevent further bloodbaths this way. As said, the plot is magnificent and Lieberman manages to continuously sustain an ominous & moody atmosphere, but the entire middle section lacks panache and memorable substance. Zalman King's performance as Jerry is good but his character is overly weird and not exactly likable. His response to the murders and especially his methods of approaching the other Blue Sunshine users are strange and it's actually no wonder the police suspects him of all the crimes. Don't expect any gory situations, neither, but the hairless psychos look genuinely creepy and menacing. The soundtrack is excellently psychedelic and the sequence shot at the disco is already legendary by now. In spite of Synapse's recent transfer to DVD, the picture quality is rather inferior, which gives a good idea of how obscure this film was all these years. Although not being the masterwork I anticipated (or hoped) it to be, I still wouldn't hesitate to recommend "Blue Sunshine" to any other open-minded fans of eccentric 70's cinema. All the other Lieberman films I've seen thus far ("Squirm", "Just Before Dawn" and "Satan's Little Helper") are worth tracking down as well.