Review by Amos Lassen
By: Amos Lassen
We have been hearing about the release of the remastered "Thundercrack!" for a long time and come December it can be yours. "Thundercrack!" has been regarded as "the world's only underground kinky art horror film". It begins as an atmospheric gothic ...
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We have been hearing about the release of the remastered "Thundercrack!" for a long time and come December it can be yours. "Thundercrack!" has been regarded as "the world's only underground kinky art horror film". It begins as an atmospheric gothic tale- a dark and stormy night breakdown featuring a creepy old house on the hill and then it turns into an eerie and different movie. The plot is almost impossible to describe aside from saying that it is wonderfully trashy with amazing dialogue.
In 1975, Curt McDowell and writer/actor George Kuchar created a film not recommended for those with tender sensibilities. It soon became a true cult classic that has shocked, excited and amazed audiences worldwide for 40 years. This DVD presentation is the first ever-official North American video release.
It is what a '70s porn flick would look like if it is indeed porn. Shot in black-and-white, it has a weird dreamlike atmosphere and long-winded soliloquies that are mixed with graphic sexual intercourse. You have not seen anything like this before. Using the old horror film cliché of travelers becoming stranded in a mysterious old house, it goes much further and blows the minds of the viewers.
Synapse Films has been working on a fully restored, 180-minute director's cut for some time and it's taken forever since (as one of their agents has stated) "this thing looks like it was shot on toilet paper".
Now it is being released in time for its' 40th Anniversary, this is a restored BluRay release with the Bonus Features fans have been dreaming of for years including outtakes and audition footage.
The story begins during a storm with lots of thunder. We see a house with the name of Prairie Blossom and a visitor named, Willene Cassidy, pays a visit to the house owner, Mrs. Gert Hammond, who is totally . She insists that she make herself presentable before she answers the door and puts on makeup in the worst possible way and then herself to so she will seem to be sober. Willene is shocked at the disheveled appearance of Mrs. Hammond and insists on giving her a bath. Willene explains that her husband is a very famous country singer, Simon Cassidy, whose music is heard on the radio during the later scene and is terrible. During the course of the bath, Willene unintentionally masturbates Mrs. Hammond. It is also revealed that Mr. Hammond died and that their son "no longer exists".
As the night goes on, more and more visitors appear- Chandler, widower of the incredibly wealthy Sarah Lou Phillips. The House of Phillips owns the largest girdle factory in the United States. Their popularity is such that few American women are without one. Chandler relates the story of his wife's death. She burned to death at a beverage party, where there was a freak accident and her girdle caught fire. This caused burning rubber to envelop her head, and finally she fell dead into the swimming pool, her head steaming. This causes Chandler to have a bizarre sexual dysfunction. Although initially attracted to women, they would invariably prove to be owners of House of Phillips girdles. When they took off their clothes before sex, he would be reminded of the death of his wife and would not be able to perform sexually. For this reason he had been having sex with other men, as they don't wear girdles that would remind him of his wife. Rather strangely, during the telling of this story, Chandler is being orally serviced by Sash and has no apparent erectile problems.
Chandler and Sash, while in the basement, discover that Mrs. Hammond had pickled the remains of her husband and kept them in a jar. She tells of the death of her husband, who had been working one day in the grain bin and got covered with grain dust. Locusts dived on him to eat the dust and in the process devoured much of Mr. Hammond's body.
During the course of the night, many of the guests have sex with each other in various combinations. Mrs. Hammond explains that her son collected sex toys that would be delivered in plain brown packages that she would take to him with his morning breakfast. One of the guests, a man named Toydy, becomes obsessed with finding the key to a locked door in the house. One of the female guests, Roo, finds the key but will not give it to Toydy unless he agrees to come in her mouth. Despite not finding her attractive, Toydy agrees and manages to stay aroused by watching Bond and Willene have sex.
The final human guest at Prairie Blossom, Bing, arrives in an agitated state. He had come from the circus in a vehicle containing a toothless lion, a near-blind elephant, and a female gorilla named Medusa. He explains to the group that Medusa is extremely dangerous and is likely to kill anyone she comes across. It is revealed that Bing himself is the cause of the ape's murderous tendencies. If you can guess where this is going you will be wrong because there is no way to anticipate anything about this film. I have stopped summarizing and tell you that this is one you must see for yourself...if you dare.
Review by Uncle Kenny
By: Uncle Kenny
Met Curt many years at the world premier of this film..It was at the Seattle film festival, around 1977. Fell in love. Someone, with a twisted mind, as I. Never got to meet him, but a friend, got to fuck him. Still, one of the funniest movies mad...
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Met Curt many years at the world premier of this film..It was at the Seattle film festival, around 1977. Fell in love. Someone, with a twisted mind, as I. Never got to meet him, but a friend, got to fuck him. Still, one of the funniest movies mad, on a budget of what look like to be, around $10,000.00. PLEASE REISSUE IT!