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Psycho beach party
Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
Party till you drop. Dead.
Psycho beach party is a manic party mix of 50s psychological thrillers, 60s beach movies and 70s slasher films. The story focuses on Chicklet Forrest (Lauren Ambrose), a 16-year-old tomboy who's desperate to be part of the in-crowd of Malibu beach surfers. She's the typical American girl - except for one little problem: her personality is split into more slices than a pepperoni pizza!
When a series of grizzly murders rocks the beach, Captain Monica Stark (Charles Busch) is called to the scene to investigate. Suddenly, everyone in Chicklet's orbit becomes a suspect - the king of the beach (Thomas Gibson as Kanaka), his studly protégé with a background in psycho-analytic theory (Nicholas Brendon as Starcat), the gorgeous Hollywood starlet on the lam (Kimberley Davies as Bettina Barnes/Diane), her secretary/masseuse/personal assistant (Danni Wheeler as Berdine), the sultry teenage sexpot (Amy Adams as Marvel Ann), the perfect mother with a shady past (Charles Busch as Mrs Forrest), the Swedish foreign-exchange student with a slippery tongue (Lars), the bitch on wheels (Rhonda), the hunky surfers wrestling with their love of wrestling (Nick Cornish as Yo Yo and Andrew Levitas as Provoloney) - even Chicklet herself!
Will Captain Monica catch the culprit? Can Chicklet uncover the mental block that fragmented her personality? And what impact will all this have on the end of summer luau?
Only one thing is for sure - nothing's gonna stop the party - the Psycho beach party!!!
Persons of interest
- Lauren Ambrose .... Florence 'Chicklet' Forrest
- Thomas Gibson .... Kanaka
- Nicholas Brendon .... Starcat
- Kimberley Davies .... Bettina Barnes
- Matt Keeslar .... Lars/Larry
- Charles Busch .... Captain Monica Stark
- Beth Broderick .... Mrs Ruth Forrest
- Danni Wheeler .... Berdine
- Nick Cornish .... Yo Yo
- Andrew Levitas .... Provoloney
- Amy Adams .... Marvel Ann
- Kathleen Robertson .... Rhonda
- Nathan Bexton .... TJ
- Buddy Quaid .... Junior
- Jenica Bergere .... Cookie
- Channon Roe .... Wedge Riley
- Charles Busch .... Screenwriter
- Robert Lee King .... Director
Cinematic intelligence sources
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
Piss-take, USA-style.
Now, the citizens of the United States of America are not known around the globe for their ability to take the piss out of anything, let alone themselves or their icons, so you might find it strange that I am crediting those people with that ability. Especially if you've read any of my other reviews, which have a tendency to rip the shit out of the loud, abrasive, overweight and undercultured accountants in Hollywood. But there is something that you should keep in mind when discussing a population group the size of the USA: there's always someone downtrodden enough to rediscover irony. Former slaves do it. Native Americans do it (or, they would if they were allowed to communicate with the outside world) and poofs do it. A poof has a special sense of the ironic because, more often than not, no-one knows that they're being oppressed. Faggots disguise themselves as heterosexuals so that they can infiltrate the decent communities of God-fearing people and disseminate their filth in order to indoctrinate the innocent youngsters of this great nation.
[Hey, Special Agent, take a pill and get on with the review - Director of Intelligence.]
*Swallows drugs*
Now, who am I today?
And what was I doing?
Oh, yes, reviewing Psycho beach party. An individual's appreciation of Irony grows in direct proportion to their level of oppression. Jews are renown for their ironic sense of humour, as are Homosexuals. They subvert the high held morals of the Hegemony with seemingly casual remarks that are actually cutting jibes. They make films about people who don't turn out to be who they at first seem. They take "ordinary" situations and turn them into extraordinary, life changing events. They hold up icons of "normalcy" and reveal them to be the fakes that they are, reveal the seething underbelly of the beast that some would call decent society.
But enough politicisation, Psycho beach party is, if nothing else, a sunny, sandy surf flick about happy teens doing happy things. It's just that that scenario is as unlikely today as it was then (only no-one spoke about that sort of thing).
Security censorship classification
M (Medium level violence, medium level coarse language, sexual references)
Surveillance time
90 minutes (1:30 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
VHS rental: 12 September 2001
DVD retail: 13 March 2002
VHS retail: 14 August 2002
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Irony
- Witty language used to convey insults or scorn;
- Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs;
- A trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs.
