FILM FRENZY

Anne Carlisle and Anne Carlisle in Liquid Sky (Photo: Cinevista & Vinegar Syndrome)

LIQUID SKY (1982)
★★★ (out of four)
DIRECTED BY Slava Tsukerman
STARS Anne Carlisle, Otto von Wernherr

Like Killer Klowns from Outer Space and Night of the Creeps, here’s another instant cult item from the ‘80s that worked miracles with a low budget.

If anything, 1982’s Liquid Sky is even more bizarre than that aforementioned pair, with writer-director Slava Tsukerman and co-scripters Anne Carlisle and Nina V. Kerova choosing to plop aliens down in the middle of New York’s punk/New Wave club scene. These diminutive extra-terrestrials (never shown) perch their spaceship on the roof above the penthouse occupied by the bisexual model Margaret (Carlisle) and her drug-dealing girlfriend Adrian (Paula E. Sheppard). Discovering that human orgasms produce a heroin-like sensation on which they can feed, they begin killing everyone who has sex with Margaret — considering most of these partners are abusive, she’s fine with their demises. Meanwhile, a German scientist (Otto von Wernherr) has arrived to study and then stop the alien invaders, but he proves to be woefully ineffectual.

Carlisle is impressive in dual roles — she also plays a homosexual drug addict named Jimmy — and the film’s throbbing music score, trippy effects, and commentary on sex, drugs & (punk) rock ’n’ roll mark it as a particularly spacey odyssey.

(Liquid Sky will be screened as part of VisArt Video’s Cult Movies In The Cave series at 8pm Tuesday, March 8, at VisArt Video, 3104 Eastway Dr. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged. Go here for more info.)