BAD ACID

Produced, Directed, Written, Edited, and Videotaped by Bill Zebub

Bill - Bill Zebub
Melissa - Kat Murello
Axeman - Rocco Martone III
Peter Steele - Himself
Lapgirl - Brandy D'Vinn
Uncredited Lingerie Hottie - Kerri Taylor

Zebub's BAD ACID is an experiment that fails. His attempt at underground comedy is as unfocused and meandering as it is long-winded, which is odd since Bill clearly knows how to write scenes that are direct and to the point. His films rarely contain those notorious microcinema scenes that run on for page after page of dialogue, to which I usually find myself quickly distracted from. No, Bill writes the majority of his scenes short and sweet, he just tries to paint too broad a picture. The irony here is that Zebub opens his film with a monolog stating that most people in our society don't appreciate the landscape because we're too busy focusing on every blade of glass, or, to put it more simply, we loose sight of the big picture by focusing on the details.

This broad approach has worked for Zebub before, like with STEREOTYPES DON'T JUST DISAPEAR INTO THIN AIR, where Zebub charted a world marked by every ethnic and social stereotype imaginable. Despite the all-encompassing nature, the single theme of racism kept STEREOTYPES on a tightly focused leash. One had to remember that's it's the tightly constructed details that comprise the big picture, especially in cinema. If there's a single theme dominate in BAD ACID, then it was lost on me. Times like this a commentary track would come in nice.

BAD ACID opens promisingly enough. Three friends relax in the woods and drop acid, and this particular acid is some heavy stuff. With the use of a distortion-adding video editing filter to provide the effect, Zebub spends the first quarter of the movie illustrating an acid trip. With Zebub's usual sarcastic style, the humor of the moment is mined through his verbal prows. Unfortunately, few people in the cast are up to delivering the dialogue with any level of authenticity, the noted exception being the always reliable Rocco Martone who often sounds as if he's riffing ad-libs throughout his scenes.

Allow me to stop right here. Generally, I wouldn't comment on the bad acting of an underground comedy. It's almost a given that it's going to be substandard. Unlike Zebub's past efforts, where the outrageous bad taste of his events shock audiences into laughter, here he's going for a much more adult approach to comedy, and both verbal and situational comedy depends on timing, and amateur actors stumbling through lines kill comedy flat. To Zebub's credit, he seems to write to for his actors, or at least some of them, but a professional gang of actors really could have driven home the gags.

Once the lengthy acid trip ends, the plot drastically switches gears and Zebub's caricature of himself takes on a dual personality. One hand, he's a devoted boyfriend that's simply trying to enjoy life - the small details, if you will. He has a job he loves as a radio deejay, a gorgeous girl who indulges his lingerie fetish, and enjoys the laughter-faces that a small dose of acid creates. This, for him, is the perfect life. On the other hand, as Zebub points out in a recent e-mail exchange with me, that his character is also an opportunist who takes advantage of both his friends and family. As Zebub himself puts it, "I'm an asshole."

The problem with this darker side of the Zebub caricature is that script often gives mitigating circumstances that are easy to identify with. The responses are knee-jerk reactions that span from frustrated temper tantrums when his friends act like braindead morons to setting up his friends to take the fall in a burglary heist after he was forced out of his job at the radio station. And personally, if my girl beat me up and had me sent to jail, I wouldn't speak to her ass either. If Zebub wanted to show his darker, more manipulative side, it might have worked better to place the Zebub character in situations that where his self-righteous attitude was directly responsible for the situations as opposed to only rearing its head as a response to the situations. What you have is Peter Parker syndrome. Characters who are dumped on with little or no fault of their own make for sympathetic characters, even if they are curmudgeons like Zebub.

Zebub's ambivalence towards his character mirrors BAD ACID's depiction of LSD. Zebub refuses to take sides, he's pro-acid one moment and airs on the side of caution the next. He spends time dispelling the misinformation of the drug such as flashbacks and spinal taps. The next he shows how being under the influence can really muck up your day. The drug isn't so much used to broaden one's mind as is hinted in Zebub's opening scene as it is to provide the occasional comic release by its everyday-part-of-life usage. For me, drug movies work best when a single point of view is taken and the director can show us his politics in action.

Fans of Zebub's work will find certain hallmarks that will make BAD ACID worthwhile. There are brief moments of social commentary in the form of shock humor, such as a return appearance of Black Face Bill that people should remember from STEREOTYPES. And then there are the ladies. Jim Wynorski has Julie Smith and Glori-Anne Gilbert as his go-to girls for skin, and Mike Raso has Misty Mundae and Darian Cain. Bill Zebub has cuties Kerry Taylor (uncredited) and Suzi Lorraine (in the bonus features). Joining them this time is the curvaceous Kat Murellom who spends the majority of her scenes in lingerie. Infact, as with the comedy elements, the sexploitation elements of Zebub's previous work are toned down. There's nary a nipple in sight.

BAD ACID is a step in the right direction for Zebub, it shows a maturity in work. It's doesn't always work, and the missed gagss outweigh the always spot-on satire. Zebub's DVD presentation is par for the course - rudimentary at best. The extra features, which include outtakes, behind the scenes footage, and a skit with Lorraine, all run together as one file on the disc. But given Zebub's track record as a self-starter, it's just a matter of time before he masters authoring.