Blu-ray Review: BLUE SUNSHINE Rises on Blu-ray from Filmcentrix
Jeff Lieberman's Blue Sunshine is a fascinating bit of drug paranoia horror from the end of the era of free love.
The film has recently been recovered and restored from the original 35mm negatives discovered in 2014. It's been on home video before, most notably in a limited edition DVD release from Anchor Bay in the early days of DVD, but never has it had this kind of treatment. It is a bizarre little gem from a decade of bizarre little gems, and it feels akin to the work of Cronenberg and De Palma in its themes and execution, but never quite gets the same kind of recognition.
Jerry “Zippy” Zipkin (portrayed by Red Shoe Diaries creator, Zalman King) is a regular Joe who gets wrapped up in a police investigation when a he attends a party that gets way out of hand with one of the attendees, “Frannie,” goes berserk and murders three people after instantaneously losing all of his hair. When Zippy gets chased by Frannie out into the cold and manages to save his own life from being the next one lost by pushing Frannie in front oncoming traffic, Zippy becomes the main suspect. Soon, others start to die under similarly gruesome circumstances, and the only way for Zippy to clear his own name is to find out what's happening and how to stop it himself.
All roads lead back to political candidate Ed Flemming, who spent some time in college as a dope dealer. It turns out that all of the murders were committed by people with whom he'd had dealings during his university days at Stanford. Zippy doesn't have a lot of time to find a solution, but if he doesn't, he could be the next victim of Blue Sunshine.
Blue Sunshine is one of a number of urban paranoia films of the '70s that could fit in very nicely with the works of De Palma or David Cronenberg. Like De Palma's Sisters, Blue Sunshine leans heavily on medical science and psychology to tell its story. While Cronenberg's influence is perhaps even greater as the mania and panic spreads in much the same way as the armpit slugs of Rabid, even though the carnage is considerably more contained. Lieberman never quite got his due as a filmmaker in that same layer of the cinema fan stratosphere, probably due to his other efforts like Squirm, but Blue Sunshine is an exceptional work that deserves to be mentioned alongside those better known films and filmmakers.
The Discs
Blue Sunshine comes to us on Blu-ray from new player in the home video game, Filmcentrix. This new company is the mainstream imprint of adult film archivists DistribPix, who have done some wonders with golden age adult films and their restoration and archiving. This first Filmcentrix release is amazing and shows the same level of detail that has gone into the DistribPix releases of the films of Henry Paris, which was monumental.
On top of the new 4K restoration, the film is also packaged with a huge amount of both disc based and physical bonus material that makes Blue Sunshine an essential purchase for home video geeks. On the disc there is a feature length commentary with Lieberman, which is fascinating and in which he feels very comfortable talking about this film, which is probably his greatest achievement in the field. We also have separate interviews with Lieberman, script supervisor Sandy King, co-star Robert Walden, and actor Richard Crystal, all of whom have nothing but great things to say about the project and Lieberman in particular.
However, that is far from the end of the bonus material on this disc. We also get some select scene commentary from actor Mark Goddard (Ed Flemming in the film), a Q&A with Lieberman, an archival interview with Lieberman and Mick Garris from The Z Channel's Fantasy Film Festival, a featurette on the locations of Blue Sunshine, and several vintage classroom LSD scare reels. The disc rounds out with trailers and image galleries for days. If that was it, it would be reason enough to recommend it, but fans of printed extras can't miss with this disc, because it doesn't stop there.
Blue Sunshine ships with a mountain of printed extras, so many, in fact, that's it's a bit tough to close the case. Before we get to that, I don't want to forget the CD soundtrack of the film that is provided along with a DVD copy of the presentation. In terms of paper extras we get a wonderful booklet with three essays on the film, its director, its place in hitory, and its performers from Filmcentrix's Steven Morowitz, Nicholas McCarthy, and Mark J. Banville. We also get a reproduction of the press book, a reversible insert card, a couple of tabs of “Blue Sunshine", a custom bookmark, a replica diploma for the film's resident doctor, David Blume, and a few other goodies. It's literally overflowing with goodness.
This is an outstanding release of Blue Sunshine that belongs in every cult film fan's collection. Keep your eyes open for Filmcentrix, they are a label to watch!
