Psycho Beach Party is a 2000 comedy horror film based on the off-Broadway play of the same name, directed by Robert Lee King. Charles Busch wrote both the original play and the screenplay. As the title suggests, Psycho Beach Party, set in 1962 Malibu Beach, is a parody of 1950s’ psychodramas, 1960s’ beach movies, and 1980s’ slasher films.
Plot
Florence Forrest (Lauren Ambrose) is a Gidget-like character determined to learn to surf, and earns the nickname "Chicklet" from the surfer guys. Chicklet, though, begins displaying multiple personalities, experiences inexplicable blackouts, and fears that she might be the one responsible for a series of mysterious murders in her beachside town. The deaths are investigated by Captain Monica Stark (Charles Busch), who also suspects Chicklet's mother (Beth Broderick), Chicklet's best friend Berdine (Danni Wheeler), surfing guru the Great Kanaka (Thomas Gibson), and B-movie actress Bettina Barnes (Kimberley Davies).
Other characters include university dropout (and Chicklet's love interest) Starcat (Nicholas Brendon), Swedish exchange student Lars (Matt Keeslar), surfers Yo-Yo (Nick Cornish) and Provoloney (Andrew Levitas), Starcat's girlfriend Marvel Ann (Amy Adams), and the class "queen bee" Rhonda (Kathleen Robertson).
Cast
Lauren Ambrose as Florence "Chicklet" Forrest
Thomas Gibson as Kanaka
Nicholas Brendon as Starcat
Kimberley Davies as Bettina Barnes
Matt Keeslar as Lars
Charles Busch as Captain Monica Stark
Beth Broderick as Ruth Forrest
Amy Adams as Marvel Ann
Kathleen Robertson as Rhonda
Nick Cornish as Yo-Yo
Andrew Levitas as Provoloney
Channon Roe as Wedge Riley
Jenica Bergere as Cookie
Danni Wheeler as Berdine
Nathan Bexton as T.J. Buddy Quaid as Junior Nicholas D'Agosto as The Counterman
Play and productions
The play was originally entitled Gidget Goes Psychotic, but the title was changed due to concerns about copyright. In the original 1987 production, Charles Busch played the role of Chicklet. Deciding that he might not be believable in the role of a 16-year-old girl ("while I can still manage, with the aid of a sympathetic cameraman, to play a sophisticated 25, 16 would be a stretch"), he added the character of Monica Stark to the movie.
After over 20 years, the play had its premiere UK production by Vertigo Theatre Productions in Manchester in March 2011. The production returned in August 2012 at Sacha's Hotel Ballroom. A production was held in Australia at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre from November to December 2012; productions also ran in Melbourne (notably at the Midsumma Festival) in early 2013, receiving generally positive reviews.
Melbourne, Australia, was to also hold another production of Psycho Beach Party opening in March 2021 by Essendon Theatre Company.
Reception
, the film holds a 55% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 33 reviews with an average rating of 5.55/10.
In a positive review, Stephen Holden of The New York Times states that the film "accomplishes what no stage production could. By assiduously copying the look and sound of those '60s movies -- the wriggling title sequences, the twangy surf music, and the gawky gee-whiz screen acting style -- it definitively skewers the false innocence of American pop culture on the eve of the countercultural deluge. Most of the play's subversive humor has arrived on the screen intact." Los Angeles Times critic Kevin Thomas compared the film unfavorably to its source material, opining that it "has to be twice as funny a play as it is as a movie"; he further explains that "deliberate camp like this film presents a special challenge: It must generate and sustain a high level of energy or it will swiftly fall flat. The latter is too often the case here."