1976's "Blue Sunshine" was the second outing for writer-director Jeff Lieberman, following a solid success with AIP's release of "Squirm." Like Ken Wiederhorn, Lieberman hasn't gone on to direct that often (four horror features since),but by staying within the genre continues building the foundation for his growing cult. Unlike "Squirm," a straightforward tale of backwoods terror, "Blue Sunshine" is more of a thinking-man's picture, featuring a protagonist in Zalman King who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, behaving in the most guilty manner possible! It's certainly a challenge to warm up to a character described on screen as 'erratic,' but there are other compensations and mysteries that come together nicely for the fadeout. The title refers to a type of LSD available at Stanford circa 1967, and anyone known to have sampled it becoming irritable and homicidal after a decade's passing, preceded by their hair falling out. Among the cast, Robert Walden is a standout, funny even in a serious surgeon part, and Mark Goddard, enjoying a juicy screen role as a Senatorial candidate who knows more than he lets on. Ray Young ("Blood of Dracula's Castle") plays Goddard's bodyguard, smaller roles essayed by familiar faces such as Alice Ghostley, Stefan Gierasch, and Brion James (in one of his earliest films). Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater introduced me to "Blue Sunshine," which aired only once on Feb 12 1983, less than a year before its farewell broadcast.

Thriller about a drug called "Blue Sunshine". It seems a bunch of kids took it in college in 1966. Ten years later it starts to affect them. They have horrible headaches...then all their hair falls out...THEN they become homicidal maniacs! Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King) is unjustly accused of the murders. While on the run from the police him and his girlfriend Alicia (Deborah Winters) try to find out what's going on. And what does politician Ed Fleming (Mark Goddard) have to do with it?

Interesting premise but this movie does have some problems. King and Winters are just dreadful actors and have zero sexual chemistry between them; some of the dialogue is horrendous (and delivered badly); the plot has huge loopholes and where's the ending? Still, I did keep watching and found it pretty good.

The plot itself is interesting; there's some great acting from Goddard and Robert Walden (as a doctor); there are some suspenseful scenes; some very violent (and bloody) murders and lots of nice directorial touches by Jeff Lieberman (love the opening credits!). This got virtually no release in 1976 and is now (understandably) a cult film. Worth catching.

You know why I've never done acid? This movie right here. After all, it has an "inspired by true events" square up in the end credits.

After a series of seemingly unconnected murders in Los Angeles, only one link keeps coming up - every single person took the same strain of LSD called Blue Sunshine.

Yep - the sins of the past decade are ready to come back and destroy the "Me" decade.

Zalman King - yes, the same man who got your mom all tingly after you went to bed with Showtime's Red Show Diaries - plays Jerry Zipkin, a man accused of the murders who - in true giallo-style - must clear his name. That's because he was at a party where the murders may have started, complete with a screaming Brion James and Billy Crystal's brother singing Frank Sinatra songs before he starts throwing women into the fireplace.

If turns out that if you took Blue Sunshine, chances are that you're about to lose all your hair, go crazy and start killing everyone in your path. Of course, no one knew this ten years ago when they were all dosing on it back in college. Chromosomal damage can be a real b, you know?

How can you not love a movie whose title is spoken by a parrot? One that has a climactic disco shootout? Or is so 1970's that it ends up speaking for pretty much the entire decade?

Between the self-medicating Dr. David Blume, the hard-drinking and hair losing John O'Malley and Ed Flemming (Mark Goddard, Major Don West from Lost In Space) are all caught up in the grip of the bad trip. The effects pretty much sum up Flemming's political campaign: "In the 1960s, Ed Flemming and his generation shook up the system. Now he's working within it." He has become the system. It's as if the children in Manson's famous quote - "These children that come at you with knives-they are your children. You taught them. I didn't teach them. I just tried to help them stand up." - are even more dangerous when fully grown.

Goddard isn't the only TV star that shows up, as Alice Ghostly (Esmerelda from Bewitched) makes an appearance.

Writer and director Jeff Lieberman would lend his strange style to other films like Squirm, Remote Control, Just Before Dawn and the odd true crime TV show Love You to Death that starred John Waters as a Grim Reaper attending weddings of partners that would soon kill one another.

The director claims that two major TV networks expressed interest in purchasing the film as a "movie of the week." The opportunity to get double the budget was appealing, but after seeing the edits that the movie would need to be able to play on network TV, Lieberman decided to produce this for theaters.