The Acid Eaters

The late 60’s was one of the most experimental times in the history of cinema, with Hollywood, inspired by the Europeans, breaking ground with films like Bonnie & Clyde and Easy Rider. The independents weren’t that far behind, with films like Mantis In Lace, the films of Russ Meyer, and The Babysitter. This came out of this period, and it’s nowhere near as good as the ones mentioned above. It deals with a bunch of meathead bikers and their girlfriends going cross-country and getting into un-funny adventures while searching for a giant pyramid made out of LSD. When they get inside it turns out it’s an entrance to Hell, and the devil grants fantasies.
This film had the potential to be a good film. It features a very interesting and unique editing style, the same way Easy Rider did, with cross-cutting and montage sequences that seem to have been influenced by the Russian films of Eisenstein and Pudovkin. In fact, sometimes it looks like The Man With The Movie Camera, especially at the beginning. But when the story kicks in, it all turns to shit. The acting is some of the worst things I’ve seen in movies in my life. These people are as hippie as I am Jewish! And boy, is it boring! There are these long, tedious sequences filled with padding and bad comedic sketches (cold shower, anyone?) that seem to be made solely to stretch the running time. It gets a little more interesting after they reach hell, simply because it seems to turn into a pro-Christian film where the devil grants LSD-induced fantasies based on the 7 Deadly Sins, but it’s just a little too late, and not even a healthy dose of t&a was able to save it. Skip it.