How had I missed this? Philip Michael Thomas, before becoming a household name with "Miami Vice," made this anti-PCP film, which may not have been released until 1986, when, trying to promote his singing career, a music video got spliced in for a VHS release. [That convoluted sentence fits the film.] A struggling musician gets PCP at a tennis court - conveniently hidden in the racket handle - and quickly becomes paranoid enough that he estranges his wife (Vernee Watson) and his band (The Gap Band) and then starts hallucinating snakes and spiders. He has a freak-out that leads to a tragic accident and everyone mourns the star that, if you were following the plot, he had not actually become. There were a few "Reefer Madness"-type films in the 1970's, mostly failures because they tried to be "hip," but this one manages to be over-the-top and completely serious at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment