The actual performances during the film range from excellent to somewhat amateurish, but this amateurism is easily absorbed by the sheer power of the imagery on display.
Its own mythology aside, this flamboyant, graphic and disturbing quasi-docu reenactment of a notorious chapter in U.S. counterculture life is a fascinating if peculiar accomplishment.
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is not a "horror" film or an "underground" film, but an act of transgression so extreme and uncompromised, and yet so amateurish and sloppy, that it exists in a category of one film -- this film.
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
New York PostV.A. Musetto
See it - if you dare.
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The film evokes how homicide became the ultimate orgasm for kids who had turned themselves into zombies of flesh.
60
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
A film the family might've made themselves: sophomoric, hagiographic, amateurishly strobe-happy, and thoroughly hippiefied.
Finally, though, Mr. Van Bebber seems more interested in recreating the grainy look of scratched 1970's film stock than in reflecting on the horrors he depicts, making this a difficult sell for all but the strongest stomachs among connoisseurs of vintage gore.
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Van Bebber is out to capture the mood of a generation-long bad trip and succeeds with unnerving accuracy by telling the story within the family circle.