Acid Eaters, The (1968)

Four middle-class office-worker couples become weekend “bikers” in all-red clothes. They go for a topless swim, play strip poker and “freak out” on (and in) “the White Pyramid”, a 50-foot tower of LSD.

In fantasy segments, a guy has sex with his neighbour and a blonde dances topless while a black guy plays the bongos.

Comic actor Buck Kartalian dominates things as Artie and also shows up with a pitchfork as the devil, who shows the others how to smoke pot and gives them huge cubes of LSD.

The Acid Eaters isn’t great cinema by any definition, but it’s one of the most fascinatingly surreal cash-ins on the peace and love generation made by people with obviously zero connections to the scene. It makes Skidoo (1968) look like Easy Rider (1969).

Its an impossibly surreal film that follows no normal laws of narrative cinema. The trips to hell are unforgettable as is the final orgy freak-out. This film screams for a wider cult reputation than it has received.

Ollie
Eric Wahl
Genna
Judy Wood
Artie / The Devil
Buck Kartalian
Chickie
Pat Barrington
Fran
Lila Cranston
Smiley
Bob Wren
Big Jack
John McCloud
Marsha
Dianne Curtis
John
Chico Vespa

Director
B. Ron Elliott (Byron Mabe)