Thundercrack! (1975)

A group of strangers – four men and three women – find themselves stranded at the remote mansion (‘Prairie Blossom’) of drunk and grieving widowed madwoman Mrs Gert Hammond (Marion Eaton) during a violent thunderstorm in the Nebraska hinterlands.

There, they swap bizarre personal backstories – and bodily fluids.

The visitors to the house include Willene Cassidy (Maggie Pyle) – the wife of very famous but untalented country music star, Simon Cassidy (John Thomas); Chandler (Phillip Heffernan billed as Mookie Blodgett), the widower of the incredibly wealthy Sarah Lou Phillips (Virginia Giritlian), whose family owns the largest girdle factory in the United States; and Sash (Melinda McDowell).

One of the guests, a man named Toydy (Rick Johnson), becomes obsessed with finding the key to a locked door in the house.

One of the female guests, Roo (Moira Benson), finds the key but will not give it to him unless he agrees to ejaculate in her mouth.

Despite not finding her attractive, Toydy agrees and manages to stay aroused by watching Bond (Ken Scudder) and Willene have sex.

The final guest at Prairie Blossom, Bing (George Kuchar), arrives in an agitated state.

He has come from the circus in a vehicle containing a toothless lion, a near-blind elephant, and a female gorilla named Medusa.

He explains to the group that Medusa is extremely dangerous and is likely to kill anyone she encounters (it is revealed that Bing himself is the cause of the ape’s murderous tendencies).

Toydy tricks Bond into a homosexual encounter and eventually opens the locked door with Roo, thus discovering Prairie Blossom’s terrible secret.

The fate of Roo and Toydy is unknown to the others the following morning when Chandler and Sash leave together, as do Bond and Willene. Bing has married Medusa (though for some reason, he wore the wedding dress) and Mrs Hammond is alone with the jar containing her pickled dead husband.

She proposes a toast to love and pours Mr Hammond’s drink into his jar.

This two-and-a-half hour-long pornographic black comedy horror film – a filthy epic of voyeurism, hardcore fucking and endless dirty puns – was written, edited, shot and directed by Curt McDowell, who also appears under the pseudonym”Pamela Primate”.

Thundercrack! was an unexpected hit at Filmex, the Los Angeles Film Festival, in 1975 and subsequently became a fixture on the midnight movie circuit.

Because of the graphic sex – including masturbation (both male and female); man on woman sex; man on man sex; woman on woman sex; oral sex, anal sex and bestiality (simulated) – the film was unavailable in many areas of the world.

A Blu-Ray/DVD was released in 2015 for the film’s 40th anniversary.

Mrs Gert Hammond
Marion Eaton
Bing
George Kuchar
Sash
Melinda McDowell
Chandler
Phillip Heffernan (as Mookie Blodgett)
Roo
Moira Benson
Toydy
Rick Johnson
Willene Cassidy
Maggie Pyle
Bond
Ken Scudder
Gerald Hammond/Medusa
Curt McDowell (as Pamela Primate)
Señor Tostada
Bernie Boyle
Charlie Hammond
Mark Ellinger
Sarah Lou Phillips
Virginia Giritlian
Hula Hoop Girl
Michelle Gross
Mrs Cassidy
Laurie Hendricks
Mrs Harlan
Billy Paradise
Simon Cassidy
John Thomas
Medusa
Margo O’Connor

Director
Curt McDowell

Video