Psycho Beach Party

Psycho Beach Party is easily going to be the most obscure movie I review on this blog. It's a shamelessly campy spoof of both 60's surfer movies and 80's slasher flicks. The film juggles the two while effectively capturing the style and esthetics of both. 

The film tells the story of Chicklet (played by Lauren Ambrose), who travels to the beach with two of her friends, Berdine (played by Danni Wheeler) and Marvel Ann (played by Amy Adams) and becomes enamored a group of surfer boys, including college psychology dropout Starkat (played by Nicholas Brendon). She desperately wants to learn how to surf. The group turns down teaching her, citing surfing as strictly a man's domain. Not accepting defeat, she seeks out their leader Kanaka (played by Thomas Gibson). The thing is Chicklet is suffering from her multiple personalities. The switch is triggered when she sees polka dots. One of the times this happens is in Kanaka's shack and he's exposed to her alter ego, Ann Bowman, who announces herself as, "Dominatrix, Empress of the Planet Earth!" Kanaka agrees to teach Chicklet to surf mainly because he's excited by her Ann Bowman personality.

While this is going on, there are a series of murders are happening with the only thing tying them together is all the victims had some sort of physical defect. Investigating the murders is Captain Monica Stark (played by Charles Busch), who has several run ins with the surfers since the murders seem to keep happening to people around or associated with their group. Meanwhile, Chicklet is freaking out over her blackouts and wondering if she's the one slaughtering everyone. She's also developing feelings for Starkat, who only views her as "one of the boys," preferring the company of Marvel Ann. 

This film has a very distinct and very campy sense of humor that was infused into the film by screenwriter, and legendary drag performer, Charles Busch, based on his stage play of the same name. In the original run of the play, Busch played Chicklet, but once it came time for the film to be made it was quite clear he was far too old for the role and created the role of Monica Stark to play instead. He and Robert Lee King perfectly capture the spirit of the old 60's beach movies, complete with the incredibly fake rear projection effects of the actors "surfing". Then to add in the element of the 80's slasher films and the whodunit mystery associated with that makes for an amusing dichotomy between two radically different genres. 

For a reasonably low budget film, this movie has a pretty impressive cast. Lauren Ambrose is fantastic as Chicklet, rocking each of her multiple personalities to great comic effect, while effortlessly transitioning from one to another. Nicholas Brendon does well as Starkat, but for the most part is playing the straight man to the madness around him. There's Nick Cornish and Andrew Levitas as Yo-Yo and Provoloney, two guys who it is obvious they are completely into each other to everyone else but them (they're not the brightest bulbs in the box). Charles Busch is great as Monica Stark, playing up the stereotypical 60's cop while trading barbs with former lover Kanaka. And then there is Thomas Gibson as Kanaka. I just want to show this movie to anyone who only knows Thomas Gibson as Hotchner on Criminal Minds and watch their brain slowly explode. He's hysterical as the cool beach cat Kanaka, frequently rhyming his words. When he finds out about Chicklet's alternate personality, Ann Bowman, he becomes obsessed with her and figuring out how to control bringing out this alternate personality.

Overall, Psycho Beach Party isn't going to be for everyone but for the people who can get into it's campy and silly rhythm, it's going to be a fun time. It playfully spoofs two very different types of films while bringing them together to create something very unique and at times quite funny.