Psycho Beach Party

Charles Busch's ribald stage spoof of surfing films and psycho thrillers is given a decent pop incarnation on the silver screen by the director Robert Lee King. A pouting misfit named Chicklet (Lauren Ambrose) becomes the main suspect in a series of beach murders, and she and the rest of the cast of studly, open-shirted men (Thomas Gibson, Nicholas Brendon) do a nice job with Busch's deliberately dumb dialogue, which is replete with double entendres, pointed puns, and audience groaners. Busch himself (who played Chicklet in the play) is hilarious as police captain Monica Stark, but much of this comedy works better onstage, where the frantic, desperate need to squeeze a laugh out of a live audience can inspire a cast to more outrageous heights. (official distributor synopsis)