Back in the Saddle for a Psycho Beach Party

And committing to posting again!

I won’t do the whole intro/apology “sorry for not posting for a while” thing.’ For one thing, that assumes I have actual readers beyond my best friends and boyfriend. For another, it’s just boring. It’s been a few years. I live in Copenhagen now. Moving on!

One of my favorite things about living in Denmark is the movie-going experience as a whole. It’s expensive, yes. But you get a reserved/assigned seat, the concessions include beer and wine, and every theater is immaculate.

The Danish Film Institute here in Copenhagen is one of our favorite spots, with various festivals throughout the year featuring the best of International Cinema, plus occasional screenings of old American classics.

As part of their Summer Movie Series this year, they put out a few perfect collections with names like “Sun, Summer, and Psychopaths” and “Evil Hotels.” Summertime and horror greats like Jaws, The Shining, and Psycho mixed with Euro art films like Hotel and Dirty Pretty Things, mixed with modern B-movie magic like Sharktopus. “It’s not a shark! It’s not an octopus! It is Sharktopus!”

The highlight for me was catching the camp comedy/horror film Psycho Beach Party. Based on the off-Broadway play written by Charles Busch, the plot follows main character Florence “Chicklet” Forest, played by Lauren Ambrose, a naïve, “gee-whiz” teen we soon learn has multiple suppressed personalities. When her alter-egos appear, Chicklet blacks out, emerging clueless and confused while her friends and family try to cover for her strange behavior.

A series of inexplicable Malibu murders start knocking off her cohorts one by one, and Chicklet wonders if she could be the one committing the crimes, unaware. The whole plot and character set are a direct spoof of the 1959 classic Gidget, with silly, self-aware sexual innuendoes, twangy surf sequences, and lots of slang like ‘daddy-o’ and ‘dig it’ poking fun at the 50s/60s beach party genre and constructed teen slasher plots. It definitely has its high and low points, (highlights are Busch’s turn in drag as Capt. Monica Stark, Ambrose’s short-circuit-style alter-ego purge, and a beach luau dance off starring Amy Adams), but it embodies everything a great summer flick should be, and it certainly doesn’t take itself too seriously.