In the vein of the MGM Midnight Movies release of Psych-Out/The Trip comes this drug themed double feature from Something Weird Video pairing up two lesser entries in the late sixties morality themed drug pictures fad – Alice In Acidland from John Donne and Smoke And Flesh from Joe Mangine. 

ALICE IN ACIDLAND 

Now that Alice is out of school for good, she can spend her spare time getting high on pot and chasing dudes around with Frieda, her roommate. When they’re not chasing dudes, they’re getting to know one another in the most intimate of ways and before you know it, their pad becomes swinger central. As Alice’s morals degrade she becomes drawn into a world of forbidden copulation and LSD, and once she starts dropping, it looks like there’s no turning back… 

While the plot might make this one sound like a lot of good, trashy fun, the fact of the matter is that this movie is just flat out dull. Bumping and grinding is alright for a while but not for three quarters of the film. Once Alice’s eventual acid freak-out occurs (c’mon, you knew it was coming) what should be the highlight of the picture turns out to be limp and uninspired. Shooting it in color and leaving the rest of the film in black and white should have given the scene some impact but the reality is that it’s little more than some girls go-go dancing to some swirling lights – not really all that scary. 

To the film’s credit the uninspired narration does provide a few moments of unintentional humor and the jazzy soundtrack isn’t half bad but aside from that this movie is more than likely going to put you to sleep rather than titillate you. No credits are supplied so it’s tough to say who plays who but the gal cast in the lead is cute enough. Too bad the movie is a bore. 

SMOKE AND FLESH 

The second feature on the disc is considerably more interesting even if the characters are completely one dimensional. Turk is hosting a super cool party where only the hippest of the hipster crowd can mingle. Things are going fine but everyone’s waiting for the weed to show up so that they can really get down. The go-go dancing and pot smoking is put to an abrupt stop when a gang of bikers show up to steal one of the riders’ ex-girlfriends back. Turk doesn’t want any trouble from the burly biker crew so he gives them a bottle of wine laced with acid… cue requisite freak out scene and roll the end credits. 

Some interesting footage of the New York of the late sixties coupled with a cool opening montage of squares versus hipsters photographs to put us in the right frame of mind make Smoke And Flesh visually quite appealing. The characters have no depth and the whole thing plays out so quickly that it’s really hard to keep some of the characters straight but the end result is a wacky and whacked out trip film that definitely delivers the freak-out during the big finale that fans of old drug films crave. 

The motorcycle scenes are surprisingly well shot for such a low budget obscurity and the guys who play the bikers definitely look the part. The music, which plays a huge part in the cool factor of the opening sequence, is top notch and the picture is surprisingly well shot and well edited.