BLUE SUNSHINE

Written & Directed by Jeff Liberman
Produced by George Manasse
Music score by Charles Gross
Cast: Zalman King, Deborah Winters, Mark Goddard, Robert Walden, Ann Cooper, Stefan Gierasch & Ray Young

1976/93 mins/Color/Original mono and DD 5.1 soundtracks
1.78:1 anamorphic/English/US/NTSC Region 1

Review from the 2-disc set from Synapse Films

At a party, someone goes insane and murders three women. Falsely accused of the brutal killings, Jerry (Zalman King) is on the run. More bizarre killings continue with alarming frequency all over town. Trying to clear his name, Jerry discovers the shocking truth.... people are losing their hair and turning into violent psychopaths and the connection may be a drug all the murderers took a decade before. Soon, if Jerry can't stop it, the horror will become uncontrollable, the horror caused by Blue Sunshine.

BLUE SUNSHINE offers up a chilling commentary on the free-experimentation lifestyle that so many young adults took part in during the late 1960's. What if the consequences of our actions in our youth were only now beginning to surface? Maybe we haven't reached the final destination of those "trips" we took all those years ago? It's a message that outlasts and breaks free of any one time or place, and instead continues to renew itself with each new generation.

This 1976 movie is somewhat of a cult classic and very hard to categorize. I suppose it is a horror movie. It could also be called an action movie or a thriller. But whatever you decide, you really have to give this movie credit for having an extremely original script.

Disc One:
The movie in a newly restored anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen presentation
Full running audio commentary by director Jeff Lieberman
Lieberman's original short film "The Ringer"
Still gallery
Original theatrical trailer
Restoration demo Liner notes
A 30 min. video interview with the director, "Lieberman On Lieberman".

Disc Two:
The second disc is actually a never-before-released Original Soundtrack CD that is only available in this two-disc set.

The menus are quite bland and could have been better. The 4 page insert is nothing earth shaking and one will get all this information and much, much more from both the audio commentary and the excellent video interview with Lieberman. His short film mentioned above appears to be an "educational" tool for the times and interesting. The restoration demo is very short but will show you just how poor the elements were. And speaking of image, Synapse did fine with BLUE SUNSHINE giving us a presentation that, while marred with an occasional nick, is quite good with true colors and reasonable shadow detail. The soundtrack is nothing extraordinary but reproduced for the DVD accurately with no annoyances. Fortunately for us, Synapse found and added the ultra-rare theatrical trailer.

Overall, this DVD release is worthwhile because of its rarity alone and to once again become so due its limited availability. Just having the Original Soundtrack was enough to make me buy a copy.

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Review by Brad Vautrinot. All Right Reserved. 2003. ©

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