Psycho Beach Party is a 2000 comedy horror film based on the off-Broadway play of the same name,

In the film, a female surfer with multiple personalities is suspected to be the serial killer responsible for the latest series of murders in Malibu, California.

Plot

Florence Forrest is a Gidget-like character productions also ran in Melbourne (notably at the Midsumma Festival) in early 2013, receiving generally positive reviews.

The Essendon Theatre Company in Melbourne, Australia, held another production of Psycho Beach Party beginning in March 2021.

Reception

, the film holds a 54% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 37 reviews with an average rating of 6.20/10.

In a positive review, Stephen Holden of The New York Times states that the film "accomplishes what no stage production could. By assiduously copying the look and sound of those '60s movies -- the wriggling title sequences, the twangy surf music, and the gawky gee-whiz screen acting style -- it definitively skewers the false innocence of American pop culture on the eve of the countercultural deluge. Most of the play's subversive humor has arrived on the screen intact." he further explains that "deliberate camp like this film presents a special challenge: It must generate and sustain a high level of energy or it will swiftly fall flat. The latter is too often the case here." Dennis Lim of The Village Voice was negative, concluding that the film is an "awkward combination of garish set decoration and muffled humor" and that "the viewer is left to ponder the number of levels on which this counts as a pointless exercise—a parody of parodic movies, a deconstruction of transparent genres, [and] a self-negatingly knowing example of camp".

Soundtrack

The original motion-picture soundtrack for Psycho Beach Party was released by Nettwerk Records under the Unforscene Music imprint on September 12, 2000.

  1. Ben Vaughn – Main Title
  2. Los Straitjackets – Tailspin
  3. Ben Vaughn – Marvel Ann On The Prowl
  4. Ben Vaughn – Wrestle
  5. The Halibuts – Night Crawler
  6. Ben Vaughn – Chicklet Meets Surfers
  7. Ben Vaughn – Neenie's Famous Weenies
  8. Hillbilly Soul Surfers – Cha-Wow-Wow
  9. Ben Vaughn – Chicklet Learns To Surf
  10. Four Piece Suit – Bombasteroid
  11. Ben Vaughn – Chicklet Wipes Out
  12. Ben Vaughn – Mournful Surfers
  13. Ben Vaughn – Romantic Beach Scene
  14. Ben Vaughn – Kanaka's Shack
  15. The Fathoms – Overboard
  16. Los Straitjackets – Tempest
  17. Man Or Astro-Man? – Mermaid Love
  18. Ben Vaughn – P-S-Y-C-H-O (Psycho) End Title

Home media

The film was released unrated on Region 1 DVD on November 8, 2005, by Strand Releasing. The disc contains an audio commentary with director Robert Lee King and screenwriter Charles Busch, the theatrical trailer, and the music video of "Tempest" by the band Los Straitjackets.

A Blu-ray was released on August 18, 2015.

Censorship

The film runs for 95 minutes NTSC on its American DVD release, but the version that was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) runs 85 minutes. It was passed uncut with a 15 rating. suggesting that it may have been pre-cut by TLA Releasing before submission. Similarly, the version submitted by Magna Pacific to the Office of Film and Literature Classification in Australia in 2001 ran for 84 minutes. The film was rated M in Australia, indicating that the film may not have been cut due to concerns over material.

References

  • Charles Busch's website