Blu-ray Review: THUNDERCRACK! (1975)

THUNDERCRACK!
Directed by:  Curt McDowell
Distributed by Synapse Films / CAV Distributing

 Synapse Films is known for releasing some of the greatest horror films, as well as come off-the-wall films as well.  They have some crazy, wild films in their catalog, but I think I just found the weirdest film they have released to date.  The film is called THUNDERCRACK! and it is one of the strangest movies I have ever seen.   Here is the synopsis from the Synapse Films website:

  Witness if you dare… THUNDERCRACK!… the world’s only underground kinky art adult horror film, complete with four men, three women and rampaging circus animals. With the initial setup of an atmospheric gothic tale — a dark and stormy night breakdown featuring a creepy old house on the hill — it quickly turns into an eerie orgy of graphic humor, horror and sex. A tour de force of underground filmmaking with a plot beyond description, this film fully exposes itself with amazing dialogue and trash-noir lighting through which to peer at the pickles, the puke and the polymorphs.
  In 1975, Curt McDowell and writer/actor George Kuchar created the exceptionally perverse and utterly brilliant THUNDERCRACK!, a film not recommended for those with tender sensibilities. A true cult classic that has shocked, excited and amazed audiences worldwide for 40 years, this presentation is the first ever official North American video release!

  This is the 40th Anniversary release of this film, and it amazes me and says a lot about this film that it is still around and even celebrated this many years after it's initial release.   As I mentioned, this is one of the strangest films I have ever seen.   The plot was amazing in that it started out like a horror film, as a group traveling along a country road have car trouble and find refuge in an old creepy house.  It then goes in about 20 different directions, including a sub-plot about one of the men who was recently released from the "loony bin" after his friends tricked him into having sex with a gorilla.  This scene is told from the man's point of view, complete with flashbacks of the event.  Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!  That is honestly about the most tame plot point of this film, everything else pretty much just revolves around the members of the house having sex with everyone (and everything) in the house!

  While I can't say this is a film I will be re-watching anytime soon, I can at least say I have seen it.  Although, now that I think about it, maybe I should not mention to anyone that I actually watched it! Ha!  It's definitely good for a laugh 40 years later, and is a must see for anyone that is into very strange, underground cinema.

THUNDERCRACK! is available now on DVD and Blu-ray from Synapse Films and CAV Distribution, and contains the following special features:

*  All-Region (Region Free) Release!
*  Rare archival interview segments with director Curt McDowell presented as audio commentary
*  BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE Bonus Feature - IT CAME FROM KUCHAR (87 mins): Directed by Jennifer Kroot. Documentary about the twin underground filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar
*  BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE: An additional BONUS DVD loaded with fun additional extras! Rare interviews, short films, THUNDERCRACK! audition footage, outtakes and MORE!
*  Multiple language newly-translated removable subtitles in English SDH, French, German and Spanish
*  Chapter Selections


CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD
CLICK HERE to purchase the Blu-ray