Hallucination — Hallucination(Blu Ray)

Hallucination aka Hallucination Generation is a mid-60s drama blending in themes of drop-out culture, drug taking, and later crime-fed drama. The film is shot in black and white, with jarring and colourful tripped-out imagery appearing in the second half. Here from Diabolik DVD is the first-ever digital release of the picture- taking in two versions of the film, and a few extras.

Hallucination appeared in the year 1966- it’s a US production filmed in and around Barcelona and Ibiza. It was the first picture directed by Bronx-born Edward Mann- who had nine writers’ credits and five directors' credits. In the director's seat, he helmed later-day Karloff euro horror Cauldron Of Blood(1968), interracial affair drama Hot Pants Holiday (1977), and moonshine comedy Hooch (1977).
 

I think it’s fair to say Hallucination is a very rickety and wavering Z-budget affair- with voiceovers doing the plot work in the first half. The acting throughout is pretty low-grade, and many of the actors do feel like general members of the late ’60s/’70s drop-out culture.

The film opens in a rather disorientating manner, as we see an unnamed twenty-something man stumbling down an alleyway, off into the streets running into folk, and finally crashing down near a harbour- throughout this, we get jump cuts of a bloody-headed man with his arms flaying. Fairly soon we find out via voice-over, that the running man is Bill(Danny Steinmann)- who left his home in San Francisco for a trip to Ibiza...and we flashback to when he first got to Spain. It all starts when he meets middle-aged Eric(George Montgomery) who runs a drugged-out commune, where he invites youngsters in to get high. He has a wife who is less than impressed by what he’s doing and an early teen son who is starting to get sucked into the lifestyle.

After hanging out with Bill and his buddies for a while he meets  German tourist Carol(Marianne Kanter)- and the pair have a whirlwind romance, getting married within weeks, and moving to Barcelona. Sadly things don’t turn out well, with Bill's money from his rich mother drying up….so he heads back to Ibiza, and into Eric's clutches.  When Bill used to hang out with Eric he’d always said no to LSD, and harder drugs- but Eric puts some acid in his water, and fairly soon he starts tripping- this occurs around the forty-minute mark.

I watched the updated sepia tone version, which features colour psychedelic FX- and these of course kick in big time when Bill is tripping- with some neat several-minute visuals- taking in a gun turning into a bat, female faces, shifting landscapes, etc.  Though fairly soon we return to the manipulative ways of Eric- as he’s inviting around folk to laugh at and mock poor tripping Bill. Along the way, while tripping Eric pushes into breaking in and steal money from a sugar dad of one of his drop-out gang, and as you’d imagine things goes less than well.

Steinmann is passable enough as the mainly brooding Bill, and he acts fairly well being tripped/freaked out. But the best thing here is Montgomery, as the first charming, then manipulative Eric. Like most exploitation films the teased Hallucinations are fairly fleet- and what we basically have here is a drama, and a rather unevenly paced/ presented drama at that. I’d say it’s ok, but it’s a pity more couldn’t have been made of the more tripped-out moments.

Moving onto this region free Blu-Ray. On the disc, we get two versions of the film- the original black & white version, and a sepia ‘n’ trippy coloured version- I watched the second of these, and it looks like it’s had some form of new scanning processing, though the print is still damaged in places. Moving onto the extras we have Behind The Scenes Producer Commentary( 7.42), this is a rather misleading title as it’s just an onscreen interview with the producer. Though it's interesting enough, he claims this was the first ever LSD film(?!), and talks about meeting both Burroughs & Leary- how they influenced the writing of the script. He discusses taking his first trip. And how the film had been played at a festival, and outside he got ushered into a car- and inside was none other than Mick Jagger & Keith Richards. Next, we get  50’s LSD( 10.37) here we see a man and a housewife both take acid, and we hear the results of the trips. Take An Acid Trip With Bosh & Bruegels( 6.25) where both artists' work gets animated in a trippy manner.  Fractals Meet Bosh(3.28) where we once again get more trippy animated visuals. Pouff’s Grocery Trip(2.35) which is tripped out journey around a shop. Lastly, we get an image gallery.  We also get a reproduction of the film's original press book- which runs twelve pages.

It's certainly nice to have this digital release of this lesser-seen/ known film. But I’d say approach it with caution as the tripped-out elements of the film only make up say 25% of what we have here, otherwise it’s a mix of drama, and later of light crime thriller elements coming into play. Nevertheless, the scan looks ok, and the extras are interesting/ have worth- I’d say it’s for more of a general fan of 70’s exploitation film, than those looking for a trip on film experience.