Psycho Beach Party | Rotten Tomatoes

Psycho Beach Party

Released Jan 23, 2000

1 hr. 35 min.

Comedy

List

54%

35 Reviews

Tomatometer

66%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

"Psycho Beach Party" is a manic party-mix of 50's psychological thrillers, 60's beach movies, and 70's slasher films. The story focuses on Chicklet Forrest (Lauren Ambrose), a sixteen-year old tomboy who's desperate to be part of the in-crowd of Malibu beach surfers. She's the typical American girl - except for one little problem: her personality is split into more slices than a pepperoni pizza.

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Audience Member

I love the style of this movie . It was so spot on from how I’d imagine the 50s and 50s movies being, while also keeping it nice and satirical . 3.4

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/17/20

Full Review

steve d

Intentionally cheesy but not at all funny.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A parody of the beach movies, slashers and coming of age PSA films. Psycho Beach Party was somewhat amusing thanks to Ambrose's performance, though most of the lines felt forced.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Robert Lee King's adaptation of Charles Busch's gender-bending spoof is clearly committed to the spirit of the largely underground play. It has some charm and offers fun. The cast goes for broke and Charles Busch is always an amusing performer. But there is something missing that prevents it from being memorable.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Beach Blanket Bloodshed--Camp, humor, dialog, and style done right!!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Stylized wackiness plays homage to both the slasher genre as well as the corny beach movies of the '50s, with a dash of the film noir femme fatale thrown in for good measure - this one definitely holds up well on the repeat viewing and is a helluva lot of fun. Recommended.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

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Robert Lee King

Director

Lauren Ambrose

Florence "Chicklet" Forrest

Thomas Gibson

Kanaka

Nicholas Brendon

Starcat

Kimberley Davies

Bettina Barnes

Matt Keeslar

Lars

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Globe and Mail

Rated: 2/4

Mar 22, 2002

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

It's too much filmed theater to come alive fully on the screen.

Rated: 1.5/5

Feb 14, 2001

Full Review

Ernest Hardy

Film.com

Saddled with both a script and direction that never comes near the wit or cleverness in Busch's own performance.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Jae-Ha Kim

Jae-Ha Kim

Just when it looked like the "Scream" franchise and "Scary Movie" had pretty much had their way with spoofing the horror film genre, along comes "Psycho Beach Party" attempting to horn in on the territory. Unfortunately, it's the little movie that can't.

Rated: 1.5

Jul 28, 2023

Full Review

David Reddish

Queerty

Psycho Beach Party is a relic of a time when major studios would never green-light or bankroll a film about queer characters that werent tragic, or that would feature good-natured gay sex. Fortunately, fringe cinema had other priorities.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 20, 2022

Full Review

Johnny Gayzmonic

Fanboys of the Universe

Let me just break it down in high-fidelity stereophonic sound: this film is funny as hell. It's the most killer beach party you'll ever get invited to.

Rated: 9/10

May 8, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

"Psycho Beach Party" is a manic party-mix of 50's psychological thrillers, 60's beach movies, and 70's slasher films. The story focuses on Chicklet Forrest (Lauren Ambrose), a sixteen-year old tomboy who's desperate to be part of the in-crowd of Malibu beach surfers. She's the typical American girl - except for one little problem: her personality is split into more slices than a pepperoni pizza.

Director: Robert Lee King
Executive Producer: John Hall, Jeff Melnick
Screenwriter: Charles Busch, Charles Busch
Distributor: Strand Releasing
Production Co: Strand Releasing, Red Horse Films, New Oz Productions
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 23, 2000, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 18, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $268.0K
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby A, Stereo, Surround, Dolby Digital, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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