Blue Sunshine (Limited Edition): 4k UHD Review
Arriving this week on 4K UHD is Jeff Lieberman’s 1977 tripped-out horror film, Blue Sunshine, courtesy of Synapse Films. The Limited Edition 3-disk set includes the 4K disk, standard Blu-ray and the motion picture soundtrack. The film stars Zalman King, Deborah Winters, and Mark Goddard. Lieberman’s film was inspired by a story his brother told him about people suffering nervous breakdowns associated with LSD use that they had taken years prior.
Blue Sunshine opens at a countryside house, where a small group of friends are having a party. When Frannie (Richard Crystal) has an unexpected psychotic outburst and runs out of the house, some of the group go out looking for him. Shortly after Frannie returns to the house and kills a few of his friends before running into the road and getting hit by a passing truck. Jerry (Zalman King), who chased Frannie into the road is now not only a suspect in Frannie’s death, but that of the friends that were murdered in the house. Now, Jerry is on the run and must clear his name so that he can move on with his life. King, who might be best known for directing Wild Orchid and its sequel, plus producing 9 ½ weeks, gives an at times hilariously unhinged performance here. He goes so over-the-top in certain scenes that are clearly supposed to be series but come off entertainingly wacky.
It doesn’t take long to start finding a connection between what happened to Frannie and others. Before Frannie went nuts, a wig was pulled from his head, showing that he was mostly bald. With help from his friend Alicia (Deborah Winters) and David (Robert Walden), Jerry discovers that there are others going insane and killing. They are also suffering from the same balding issue. The connection seems to be a form of LSD that they all took a decade prior in college called Blue Sunshine. The one selling the drug at the time was Edward (Mark Goddard) and is now running for Congress.
Blue Sunshine is a crazy movie and was never embraced by mainstream audiences. It’s totally understandable. However, those who like their cinema more on the weird side, should totally give this one a watch, if they haven’t already. The new 4K restoration was sourced from the original 35mm camera negative and presented in Dolby Vision with HDR10. The 2160p presentation looks great. Synapse did fantastic job here. The colors look vibrant, and the flesh tones look completely natural. The Los Angeles locations look rich and detailed. We do get the original 2.0 Mono track and a new 5.1 DTS-HD mix, which is the one I personally preferred. The new audio mix also helps bring out Charles Gross’ score, who was an interesting choice for a genre film. Gross’ more familiar works would be in 80’s Tom Hanks’ features Punchline and Turner & Hooch. This release also comes with a ton of bonus content, which you can see below.
Bonus Materials:
- 4K restoration of the original 35mm camera negative mastered in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio original theatrical mono and a 5.1 surround sound mix supervised by director Jeff Lieberman
- Two audio commentaries featuring director Jeff Lieberman
- New introduction to the film by director Jeff Lieberman
- Archival 2003 interview with director Jeff Lieberman
- “Lieberman on Lieberman” video interview
- Channel Z “Fantasy Film Festival” interview with Mick Garris and Jeff Lieberman
- Fantasia Film Festival 4K Premiere Q&A with moderator Michael Gingold and director Jeff Lieberman
- Anti-drug “scare films”: LSD-25 (1967) and LSD: Insight or Insanity? (1968), courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive
- Jeff Lieberman’s first film The Ringer (Remastered in 4K by Synapse Films from the original camera negative)
- Theatrical trailers
- Still gallery
- Liner notes booklet by Jeff Lieberman, featuring a chapter on the making of Blue Sunshine from his book Day of the Living Me: Adventures of a Subversive Cult Filmmaker from the Golden Age
- Limited edition fold-out poster
- Limited edition remastered CD soundtrack (13 tracks)
By: Marc Ferman