Coventry Review of Thundercrack!

Thundercrack! (1975)

Nah Na Na Na Na Na Nah! Thun-Der! You've been . Thundercrack'd!

[7/10 · 14 September 2006]

Referring to "Thundercrack!" as simply being a weird cult flick would be a serious understatement and actually a direct insult, since certain people around this website already tend to call mainstream movies like "Memento" or "Pulp Fiction" weird and confusing. Weird? Not quite… A term to summarize "Thundercrack" in one simple word has yet to be invented. The closest we've got now is "extravagant", "demented" and maybe also "totally f***ed up". This movie can't even be categorized in one genre, as it's hardcore pornography as well as slick comedy as well as cheesy 70's horror. Let's just stick to the old cliché saying: it has to be seen to be believed! Imagine yourself a typical low-budget horror opening, in which random people gather around an old dark mansion during a nightly thunderstorm. They're all slightly eccentric characters with unusual backgrounds and/or odd personalities and, naturally, the female owner of the mansion is the queen of all madness. Mrs. Gert Hammond (excellent performance by Marion Eaton) is a mentally messed up widow in a permanent state of delirium, constantly babbling to her deceased husband AND extremely addicted to peeled cucumbers. Her guests soon begin to physically experiment with themselves and each other and these sexual outbursts become gradually odder. Masturbation and ordinary hetero-sex at first, but before you properly realize it; you're up to your neck in gay sex, voyeurism, sex with peculiar attributes and even bestiality. This may sound like devastating cult-cinema, but director Curt McDowell captures it all on film like it's the most common thing in the world and after a while you almost begin to wonder whether YOU aren't the abnormal one for not yet having experienced sexual intercourse with a horny gorilla! "Thundercrack!" is shot in black & white and features a handful of stylish moments, despite the trashy subject matter and the obvious lack of financial means. This movie is available in two versions, but I can safely say already that even the 'cut' version (120 minutes instead of 150) is more than weird enough for every avid fan of offbeat cinema on this planet. Watch it, and I assure you'll never eat a cucumber again in your life!