Father John (John Darrell) is a hip young priest who really cares about the troubled teen and young adults in his community. He tries to communicate with them, get them free of drugs and turned onto Jesus. One day, a couple of hippies slip him some acid, unbeknownst to him, and he takes a wild trip. He receives a vision from what he perceives as God, and he sheds his priestly clothes and goes on a quest. He will become like the young folks he seeks to minister to. He ditches his priest garb and dresses in jeans and a casual shirt and “drops out.” He picks up a pretty hitchhiker and the two of them bond. John learns what it’s like to be a vagabond. He and the girl really get along well; she opens up and confides much about her life, the broken home she comes from, and other secrets. Along the way, they meet a young woman who is about to give birth. They find a hippy doctor who delivers the child. John and the girl hang out with the doctor, bonding with him, until one day they get accosted by a bunch of rednecks. These yokels eventually kill the hippy doc because he’s black. Horrified and sickened, John and his companion flee. They have an argument when she comes on to him one night and in the morning, she ditches John. He spends many days and nights looking for her and when he finds out she has died in a car accident (probably suicide), he goes off the deep end. He starts doing drugs and drinking himself into a stupor. A couple of teenagers come across him and take him to the church, where he gets cleaned up and finds God again. Now he is truly ready to minister to his flock.
So this movie was made in the late 60s/early 70s and promptly disappeared, thought to be gone forever. They found a copy of it in the early 2000s and restored it here it is, a very weird and remarkably interesting time capsule of the late 60s/early 70s youth and counterculture. Not a lot happens in the movie. There’s a ton of shots of John walking around, contemplating life and his place in it, and quite a few montages set to what I guess was considered “Acid Rock” at the time (although it sounds pretty generic to me). Many might find this boring because honestly, not much happens. There’s a lot of walking around and talking, a lot of drug usage, lots of navel-gazing, and plenty of jazzy hippy rock. But if you get into the vibe of it, this is actually a really interesting slice of what life was like back then, a deep look into the minds and souls of so many searching young people. Disgruntled with the modern world of their time, tired of the hang-up and brain-trips of the adults that ran their society, these youngsters are looking for something different to satisfying their dissatisfaction. This movie does an excellent job of conveying that journey and that longing for peace.
The Psychedelic Priest is certainly not a horror film and is a quite different entry in co-director William Grefe's cannon (this film is credited to Terry Merrill with uncredited work by Grefe). Sure, many of the elements of his previous films are here (there’s even a go-go dancing scene) but this one feels stripped bare, a story and movie that is achingly raw and full of confused passion. This is definitely not a feel-good film, but it is remarkable in that it really captures the essence of the times in which it was made. For those curious about the counterculture, this little flick might just scratch your itch.
★★★☆
Comments