Review of Thundercrack on Filmviews.net
Year1975 ReviewerChris Docker
Imagine Rocky Horror in black and white as serious perved-out schlock-horror. Let's soup up the story a little . . .
We have a big old mansion on the hill. Some strangers are caught in a thunderstorm as their truck breaks down and decide to shelter. They are shown to a room in which they can change into some dry clothes (this room just happens to contain a wide variety of sexual 'aids').
Soup it up a bit more. One of the characters is love-sick for a sex-crazed gorilla he had an affair with when he used to work in the circus. The owner of the mansion has the remains of her husband pickled in various bottles in the kitchen. Her son contracted a weird condition in the Far East that made his balls so heavy they crushed things and sent him crazy so he's behind a locked door.
Into what is becoming an increasingly complicated story that involves clichéd situations treated and re-created with incredible vision, add the odd 'porno' scene (why have pretend ones??). Just to make sure the audience isn't full of old men in dirty raincoats, include a bountiful mix of hetero and gay sex and keep the story so edge of the seat that you couldn't spend too much time getting turned on anyway.
(I saw this film for a second time in 2005 and it was apparent that a number of very explicit scenes had beed previously deleted. As the graphic sexuality runs simultaneously with double and triple puns explaining the subplots it makes much more sense with them in. The acting by lead character Marion Eaton is also outstanding, almost Shakespearean.)
If you like cult films this as a jewel. Go and see it with very open-minded friends, or people you know ahem - very well!
Rating: 8/10;