The Acid Eaters

 Included in many lists of psychedlic movies from the 60s, The Acid Eaters delivers exactly what it promises, "A group of office workers go every Friday to the white pyramid, a 50 foot tower of LSD." I went into this film completely blind, and that seems to be the only way to watch this. The Nostalgia Center describes it as, 

"Filmed in “psychedelic colour”,  The Acid Eaters isn’t great cinema by any definition, but it’s one of the most fascinatingly surreal cash-ins on the peace and love generation made by people with obviously zero connections to the scene. It makes Skidoo (1968) look like Easy Rider (1969)."

Which seems pretty accurate. While in many ways it is a typical sexploitation film of the 60s, it also gives a perspective of what people seem to think the psychedelic movement of the 60s meant. There are the typical skinny dipping scenes, motorcycles, and short dresses, but there is also the death of one of the characters who drowns in quicksand then spends the rest of the film hanging out with the devil. (who I believe then gets sold back to her boyfriend by the devil?) The pyramid itself, which I believed would have much greater metaphorical significance, is not 50 feet and also does not appear very 

prevalent. Once they enter the tower, they enter a dreamscape, which is an idea I've been playing with, but rather than having a wider range of techniques and camera styles, instead it is brightly lit in color, and features (once again), the devil who encourages the group to be as hedonistic as possible. 

As a research element, this film may provide a jumping off point of images of the time, but overall the story and visuals leave much to be desired. While the setting of the tower and a dreamscape is something I've been considering, I think this is something I'd like to improve upon, but seeing how a low budget film of the time decided to portray this is a good reference to use for a later date. It is also worth noting the representation of women and character is either sexist in some parts or just fully underdeveloped in others. In my own film I do want the setting and general plot to be a priority over the characterisation, but with some nuance. This does give an example of this though, and while I'm choosing not to use dialogue, this film does give examples of showing rather than telling that are interesting.