Thundercrack!

[lordofdance]

I tracked this movie down in the gay/lesbian section of the indpendent video store I used to live by. I wouldn't call it a gay or lesbian film, exactly. I mean, the stuff by John Waters is considered gay/lesbian as well, but I never really thought of his movies that way.

Supposedly this website www.thundercrackthefilm.com/ intends to release an official DVD edition, but I've been checking back there for almost two years and there seems to be no progress. I saw it on a low-quality VHS tape that may very well have been copied off of some other VHS tape. I'd really like to see a better version.

Thundercrack! has some of the campiest dialogue and most outrageous situations I've ever seen. Most of the movie takes place in a creepy old house and revolves around the bizarre interactions between the crazy woman who owns it and a group of strangers on a stormy night. There's plenty of unusual sexual behavior, including a man who is in love with a circus gorilla.

I'd have to add this to the list of the weirdest, grossest movies I've seen. There's one scene at the beginning where the crazy woman is vomiting in the toilet and her whig falls off into the water. She picks it up out of the toilet bowl, dripping with puke, and puts it back on. That pretty much sets the tone for the whole film. But how does Thundercrack! measure up to a John Waters movie? Well it was written (and stars) by one of the Kuchar brothers, who John Waters claims as an inspiration for his own movies. It's not quite as outrageous as a John Waters epic, and it does have a long running time, but it's pretty clear how this kind of material would appeal to him.

It's been awhile, but:

Grossness **** (at least)
Cruelty ** (at the most)
Overall Disturbing Content **** (at least)
Nudity ***** (not all of it is good, necessarily)
Film Quality ***1/2

[criterionmaster]

Holy hell, I just watched the trailer. The way that film is shot (at least the way the trailer makes it look) is like an old silent film, and in some cases the film's lighting and shots made it look like it could actually be a serious and good film. I look forward to this being released, I mean, what could be holding it up? The features are already listed on the site, which must mean they are finished. Anything that inspires John Waters is on the top of my list to see. It looked like they showed a bit of on screen masturbation? I could be wrong though.

[lordofdance]

The trailer doesn't do this movie justice. Thundercrack! shows it all, and it definitely goes farther than a John Waters movie in the depiction of graphic sexuality. No stone is left unturned, if you catch my drift. The dialogue has the same absurd, campy style of a John Waters movie, though. You'll really have to see it to believe it. I wouldn't say that it's done in the style of silent movies, though. The trailer makes it seem that way, but that's not how I remember it.

The Kuchar brothers are influential underground filmmakers, and John Waters has said that they were his biggest influence. I have one of their movies, Sins of the Fleshapoids.