My Review of Psycho Beach Party (2000)

 

Written by Charles Busch

Directed by Robert Lee King

Florence: "I've never been to an orgy before. What do I wear?"

I'm half way through October and I'm trying to keep this blog as horror themed as possible. I'm also using this as an opportunity to catch up with old horror films that I've not seen before. This would be one of them.

Pre-Six Feet Under, I was aware that this movie was a cult favourite that had Lauren Ambrose playing the main role of Florence "Chicklet" Forrest. Its a pretty interesting role for her as Chicklet turned out to be a rather multifaceted character.

As Florence, she was kind of unpopular with only Berdine (Danni Wheeler) as her only friend. As Chicklet, she was the only girl in a surfer gang. Her presence in said attracted the attention of both Starcat (Nicholas Brendon) and the much older Kanaka (Thomas Gibson). Though the latter was more attracted to the fiery Ann Bowman.

Yes, Florence suffered from multiple personalities and her others ones were playful, violent and snobbish, much to the confusion of everyone around her. Except her mother, Ruth (Beth Broderick), who knew more about Florence's psyche than she was letting on.

Anyways there was a spate of murders throughout the community and it really did look like Florence was responsible. Of course, it turns out that the mild manner Lars (Matt Kesslar) was the real killer and it's a good rug pull moment until the ending also turned things on its head.

The film's filled with some vibrant characters. You get typical mean girl types like Rhonda (Kathleen Robertson) and Marvel Ann (Amy Adams) but the standouts were Captain Monica Stark (Charles Busch) and B horror movie actress, Bettina Barnes (Kimberley Davies). Both characters light up the movie with their scenes.

- There's a slew of hunky actors in Nicholas D'Agosto, David Chokachi and Andrew Levitas to name a few.

- Florence had a younger brother who died when she was looking after him. The Ann Bowman persona was a nod to Ruth's promiscuity.

- Standout music: Ben Vaughn's P-S-Y-C-H-O (Psycho).

- Chronology: This seemed to have a very 1950s feel to it overall.

Psycho Beach Party might be one of the strangest movies I've watched in a while and it's not even a new one. It mostly worked but some stuff didn't quite land. Lauren Ambrose unquestionably was the best thing about this film.

Rating: 6 out of 10