BLUE SUNSHINE (1977)
Label: Synapse Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 94 Minutes 49 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono and 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Visions (HDR10) 2160p Ultra High Definition Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Jeff Lieberman
Cast: Zalman King, Deborah Winters, Mark Goddard, Robert Walden, Charles Siebert
Directed by Jeff Lieberman (Squirm, Just Before Dawn, Remote Control, Satan's Little Helper), the acid-damaged thriller Blue Sunshine (1977) is a hybrid mix of 70s conspiracy thriller and acid-soaked psychological terror, about a dangerous dose of acid called "Blue Sunshine" that a small group of hippies ingested back in the late 60's while attending Stanford University as students, that has comes back to haunt them a full decade later when they experience not just sudden hair-loss and baldness, but a deranged homicidal psychosis.
The film starts off with a small party at a cabin in the woods, the jokester of the party Franny (comedian Billy Crystal's brother Richard Crystal, Fun With Dick and Jane) starts crooning a tune and making out with his pal's girlfriend. His pal goes to pull him off his girlfriend and ends up accidentally pulling-off Franny's toupee, shocking everyone in the room with his unexpected chrome dome! His eyes light-up like a madman and he flees the scene, but he returns a short time later in a homicidal rage, killing three women by stuffing them into the raging fireplace! Our protaganist here is Jerry 'Zippy' Zipkin (Zalman King, Galaxy of Terror) ends up chasing after the killer into the woods, catching up to him in the middle of the road where he is hit by a truck and killed, but Jerry ends up being accused of not just his death, but the murder of the three young women back at the party. It doesn't help that he flees the scene without defending his name either, but he's convinced that with no witnesses to back him up he's gonna be railroaded by the criminal justice system, probably not incorrectly either.
Now he finds himself on the run sort of like a Hitchcockian wrong-man and looking to get to the truth about why his pal Franny went on a homicidal killing spree. Having been shot by a wrong-headed good Samaritan Jerry while fleeing the scene of the crime Jerry seeks medical attention from an old friend, surgeon David Blume (Robert Walden, Audrey Rose) who treats him, noticing while examine him that he is losing hair and suffering from headaches. He is further aided by girlfriend Alicia (Deborah Winters, TV movie Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo) who hooks him up with a set of wheels while he is (sort of) laying low trying to avoid the cops.
As Jerry further citizen-sleuths the matter he reads about a local cop who killed his entire family as well as a neighbor and their dog, the newspaper reports that the man suddenly lost his hair, which clues Jerry into the fact the two cases might somehow be connected. As he sets about investigating the murderous cop story he gets the lowdown on the gruesome homicide from a nosey neighbor, played by actress Alice Ghostley, who will be familiar to anyone who grew up watching re-runs of Bewitched like I did. He breaks into the crime scene and discovers a couple of clues, including the words "Blue Sunshine", and a connection to a local politician named Edward Flemming (Mark Goddard, TV's Lost in Space) who is running for congress. Jerry tracks Flemming down at a campaigns stop but the politician feigns not knowing anything about what "Blue Sunshine" is, and downplays his connection to the murderous cop. The politician realizing that Jerry's inquest could prove problematic for his campaign assigns his hulking security guy Wayne (Ray Young, TV's Bigfoot and Wildboy) to keep and eye on Jerry and Alicia. Jerry ends up figuring out the hair-loss and homicidal urges are related to a group of friends who attended Stanford in the late 60's and all took a batch of LSD known as "Blue Sunshine", which was given to them by a former drug-dealer, Flemming.
With the politician unwilling to shed any light on the matter Jerry tracks down the politicians his ex-wife Wendy (Ann Cooper, Just Like Old Times), and just in time, too, as he enters her apartment she's already bald and wild-eyed, about two murder two kids with a butcher's knife! He struggles with her and she ends up going over the balcony and falling to her death, and now Jerry stands accused of another murder after a neighbor finds him holding a bloody knife.
Jerry theorizes that the murders are all stemming from that peculiar bad dose of acid, and sets about trying to find someone affected by the drug so that they can be tested for chromosomal damage, and he gets that chance when bodyguard Wayne turns out to be one of the acid-buddies from college and he goes on a rampage that starts off at the discotheque and ends at the shopping mall, with Jerry shooting him with a tranquilizer gun.
The film is well-directed by Jeff Lieberman, it has that atmosphere and vibe of a 70's political thriller, but with a semi-surreal drug-culture vibe, complete with a menacing bad-trip score by Charles Gross (The Group). I like how the film actually starts off during the title sequences introducing the character who took the acid, we see them experiencing what appear to be severe headaches, sort of setting up what's to follow. Later in the film each becoming triggered by emotional events like domestic turmoil, public humiliation and annoying kids before going off the deep end. My favorite scene after the opening attack sequence is that of poor Wendy losing her hair and mind, fretting over the hair loss after one of her bratty kids pulls a clump of her hair out, later suffering headaches before turning wild-eyed and going after the kids with a butcher's knife, battling Jerry before he chucks her right off the balcony, it's very well done.
Zalman King makes for a handsome protaganist, his performance careens from a bit too subdued to over-the-top, the tone of the performance is all over the place, but I was down with it, and it fit this weird flick very well. The bald-headed killers are also pretty cool, the movie kind of glossed over how each of them went bald and ended up with wigs, but eventually each is revealed to be nearly bald, with just a few ugly patches of hair left on their chrome domes, though the finale does end up in a shopping mall, where indeed their is a wig store, which I thought was a nice touch. The 4K resolution certainly didn't do the films bald-cap and make-up work any favors, but it doesn't ruin it either.
It's not a perfect film by any means, the premise is aces, but the way it sort of resolves happens rather quickly, and does not actually answer many questions, I had a lot of lingering questions when this one wrapped up, which might have actually worked in the film's favor, because I am not so sure a word for word explanation of what the heck was happening here would have been very satisfying either. There are also a couple of obvious plot holes and arcs that go nowhere as well, which I would chalk up to low-budget shortcoming and not being enough shooting days to cram it all in. As a sort of abstract LSD-terror drugsploitation flick it works pretty aces though, and every time I watch it I walk away from it pretty satisfied by how fucking weird and creepy it is.
Audio/Video: Blue Sunshine (1977) geta new 4K Ultra HD release from Synapse Films, featuring an all-new 4K restoration presented in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible), framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. Per the usual the Synapse Films restoration is gorgeous, grain is intact and looks lush and wonderful, fine detail and textures of facial close-ups and those 70s fashions look terrific, and the colors pop quite nicely with the Dolby Vision (HDR10). Primaries looks terrific, whites are crisp, and the black levels are deep and inky with much improved shadow detail. Skin tones are noticeably warmer and more supple looking than on past editions I have seen. The framing is also a bit tighter than the previous Blu-ray from Filmcentrix which offered 1.78:1 framing as where this release restores the original theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Contrast and clarity are also appreciably improved with the 4K resolution and WGC color-grade. This is just a terrific upgrade from the ground up, easily the best the film has ever looked on home video.
Audio option include uncompressed English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono and 5.1 surround with Optional English Subtitles. The tracks are clean, free of hiss or distortion, dialogue sounds terrific, with the lysergic score from Charles Gross being a highlight, it's an eerie, tension-filled score with
strained strings and moments of brassier full-bodied moments. I still prefer the original mono presentation myself, but the surround option does offer a fun if somewhat artificial sounding surround presentation.
Synapse's new release is well-stocked with extras, starting off with Two Audio Commentaries featuring director Jeff Lieberman, the first an archival track with Lieberman moderated by Howard S. Berger, the second is commentary recorded by Lieberman with Elijah Drenner moderating ported over from the previous Filmcentrix Blu-ray from 2016. We also get a 90-second New introduction to the film by director Jeff Lieberman (1:3o); a 41-min Archival 2003 interview with director Jeff Lieberman; an archival 31-min “Lieberman on Lieberman” Video Interview; the 14-min Channel Z “Fantasy Film Festival” interview with Mick Garris and Jeff Lieberman; and a new 36-min Fantasia Film Festival 4K Premiere Q&A with moderator Michael Gingold and director Jeff Lieberman.
Another nice inclusion are the Anti-drug “scare films”: LSD-25 (1967) (26:41) and LSD: Insight or Insanity? (1968) (18:03), courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive, plus Jeff Lieberman’s First Film The Ringer, which gets two versions: the original uncut version (from a projection print source) (19:41) and the final release version (remastered in 4K by Synapse Films from the original camera negative) (18:33), the former of which gets with Optional Audio Commentary on the uncut version by Jeff Lieberman and moderator Howard S. Berger. Disc extras are buttoned-up with 5-min of Theatrical Trailers and a 6-min Still Gallery.
The 3-disc 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray/CD Soundtrack release from Synapse arrives housed in a sideloading Rigid Slipbox with gorgeous new artwork by Wes Benscoter, the spine has large Blue Sunshine logo that has some tasty shelf appeal. Inside the clear, 3-hubbed full-height Criterion-style Scanavo keepcase itself is housed inside of a thick cardstock Slipcover, itself featuring more artwork by Benscotter. The 2-sided non-reversible wrap itself features original movie poster artwork, which was previously used by Synapse for their 2003 DVD edition. The 3-discs inside all featuring their own unique artwork which looks culled from other movie poster designs.
Tucked away inside there's a Limited Edition Fold-Out Poster featuring another movie poster artwork, one of my favorites, too. Additionally we get a 12-Page Illustrated Booklet with 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, plus the 2024 Synapse Films Catalog. It's quite a deluxe packaging presentation, certainly on par with Synapse's deluxe Dario Argento 4K editions, and the recently collab with Red Shirt Pictures for the heavy metal horror Trick Or Treat.
Just to note what is not ported over from past releases here, I will note that the film was released on Blu-ray back in 2016 by Filmcentrix as a 3-disc Collector's Edition featuring a Blu-ray, DVD and the CD soundtrack, featuring a director approved 4K restoration of the 35mm camera negative. It had it's own Embossed Slipcover based on the movie poster, and a wealth of fun little packaging extras as well. This set included a Press Book Replica, 2-Sided Insert Cards, a Collectible Bookmark, a business card with a couple of fake tabs of Blue Sunshine Acid, a Director Signed Magnet, plus a 28-Page Illustrated Booklet with writing on the film by Stephen Morowitz, Nicholas McCarthy, and Mark J. Banville. Disc extras found on that set that are not present on the Synapse release include the 7-min Tuning In On Tuning Out: Interview with Director Jeff Lieberman, the 10-min Supervising Sunshine: Interview with Script Supervisor Sandy King, the 10-min Paging Dr, Blue: Interview with Actor Robert Walden, the 7-min The Lunar Crooner: Interviews with Actor Richard Crystal, a 9-min Select Scene Commentary with Mark Goddard, 12-min Q&A at the Jumpcut Cafe with Director Jeff Lieberman, a 12-min The Locations of Blue Sunshine with Director Jeff Lieberman,
Extras that are carried over from that 2016 release are the Audio Commentary with Director Jeff Lieberman moderated by Elijah Drenner, 14-min Channel Z “Fantasy Film Festival” interview with Mick Garris and Jeff Lieberman, and the Vintage Classroom LSD Scare Films. This 2016 release is still pretty great to be fair, and it has some exclusive extras and sweet packaging, so I will not be parting with it anytime soon, it still has value. This is not to say that the new Synapse release is not killer, it's just different, and the 4K upgrade is well-worth double-dipping for in my opinion.
WRAP ARTWORK
Special Feature:
- 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 (1:30)
- Archival 2003 interview with director Jeff Lieberman (40:44)
- “Lieberman on Lieberman” Video Interview (30:44)
- Channel Z “Fantasy Film Festival” interview with Mick Garris and Jeff Lieberman (14:04)
- Fantasia Film Festival 4K Premiere Q&A with moderator Michael Gingold and director Jeff Lieberman (36:29)
- Anti-drug “scare films”: LSD-25 (1967) (26:41) and LSD: Insight or Insanity? (1968) (18:03), courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive
- Jeff Lieberman’s first film The Ringer, included here in two versions: the original uncut version (from a projection print source) (19:41) and the final release version (remastered in 4K by Synapse Films from the original camera negative) (18:33) with optional audio commentary on the uncut version by Jeff Lieberman and moderator Howard S. Berger
- Theatrical Trailers (5:02)
- Still Gallery (5:37)
- 12-Page Illustrated Booklet with 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
- CD Soundtrack with Music From the Motion Picture, written and composed by Charles Gross (13 Tracks, 36 min)
- Slipcover and O-Card with front and back artwork by Wes Benscoter
Blue Sunshine (1977) is one weird film all the way around, an acid-damaged thriller about a bad batch of acid with the delayed effect of turning those who turned-on to it into deranged homicidal psychos a decade later. It's heavy with atmosphere and a couple of moments of visceral violence that still pack a shock, especially that opening scenario with Franny stuffing a woman into raging fireplace is very unnerving. It's a bit of slow-burn at times, as a lot of 70s flicks were, but as a deranged, paranoid thriller the premise is pretty awesome, director Jeff Lieberman really came up with a winning singular film with this one, there is nothing else like, the only one that even comes close in my mind is Larry Cohen's God Told Me To (1976).
Screenshots Comparison:
Top: Filmcentrix Blu-ray (2016)
Bottom: Synapse Blu-ray (2025)
More Screenshots from the Synapse Films Blu-ray:
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