While most of the quickie "cash-in" psychedelic films of the late 1960's are not very good, many are very entertaining or fascinating period pieces. Even such bad films as THE WEIRD WORLD OF LSD, SKIDOO, THE BIG CUBE, or LIKE IT IS are fun to watch. THE ACID EATERS is just boring and stupid. It does start off well with a clever montage capturing the nine-to-five work world (and lunch hour!), and there is some good photography of the mountains outside of the greater L.A. area. Also, the music score is interesting, kind of like outtakes from a non-existent Sandy Nelson Goes Psychedelic album. Unfortunately, the cast does NOT look remotely psychedelic; they look like people who would be nuzzling mixed drinks in cocktail lounges looking to pick up an anonymous sex partner to take to a local motel. Perhaps the producers were so familiar with casting these type of people for their sex films that they did not think that the same people would not work here. Also, as the other reviews stated, this is mostly a topless groping film. There's no real drug content (the LSD tower is absurd--the devil routine is like a bad imitation of the tinted color sequence in Albert Zugsmith's PRIVATE LIVES OF ADAM AND EVE), and all the colored lights and hand-painted LSD signs on the wall do not make a psychedelic experience. The final sequences in the LSD tower remind me of Zugsmith's MOVIE STAR American STYLE OR LSD I HATE YOU, which was horrible but more interesting than anything in this film. I guess that since David Friedman made nude westerns and nude crime films and nude jungle films, he felt he had to make a nude psychedelic film too. Trust me, this film is NOT worth purchasing, even if you can get it for five dollars. If you want to see an obscure psychedelic cash-in film, find a copy of MARY JANE or THE LOVE-INS or THE American DREAMER or HALLUCINATION GENERATION or MICROSCOPIC LIQUID SUBWAY TO OBLIVION. Don't waste your time with this.
