Archive

World Fantastic Cinema

Psycho Beach Party

Robert Lee King

USA2000 95min 35mm color

Synopsis

US in the 60's were in an era of turmoil. The movements for Black-Americans rights and against the Vietnam War were widespread and questioned the existence of the country. However, there were times before this seriousness when life was fun and amusing, and sometimes people miss such times. < Psycho Beach Party > is situated before the turmoil of the 60's, to be precise, when Elvis Presley's Rock n' Roll thrilled the youths in the 50's. Young men with short hair greased back, unfashionable bikinis and big-rimmed sunglasses, teenagers dating at drive-ins, and soundtracks playing predominantly surfing music are the mechanism that depicts the feelings of < Psycho Beach Party >.The film starts comically at an American beach in the 60's. Hussel Gordon Lewis (60's American director who made second-level low-budget films) reactionary and outdated slasher style is incorporated, and psycho thriller style is attempted through the characters with dual personalities. However, it is still a comedy. Thus the director makes comical variations of slasher and thriller mechanisms to draw out the amusement from the audience, since < Psycho Beach Party >'s reactionary tendency is to reminisce on the fun times rather than to focus on the serious aspects of the 1960s. (LIM Jisoo)

Diretor

Robert Lee King

Robert Lee King grew up not far from the beaches of Southern California. A graduate of USC Cinema/Television, he wrote and directed < The Disco Years >, an award-winning short, which received a critical and commercial success as part of Strand Releasing's < Boys Life >. His script for < Slap Her, She's French >-currently under Dreamworks-has been rewritten by some of the most expensive writers in Hollywood. This film is his debut film.