Alabama's Ghost

An aspiring musician/janitor named Alabama (Christopher Brooks) stumbles upon the possessions of magician Carter the Great in the basement of a San Francisco club. Looking to return the items to his relatives, he ends up smoking some ashes (!) and coming in contact with the ghost in the afterlife. Naturally, this means he starts his own hippie magic show and soon is wowing the world with Carter's old tricks. But turns out his management is hellbent on world domination via TV waves. Oh, and they are also vampires for no specific reason. Writer-director Fredric Hobbs also gave the world Godmonster of Indian Flats (1973) so it is no surprise this is an odd one. I swear I had to listen to the opening monologue three times to make sense of it (something about Nazi doctors who made robots visiting Carter in India where he found a super rare hashish). I'd say the first hour or so is "normal" but then things just get bonkers. Hobbs was apparently heavily involved in the art world in San Francisco and he makes sure to wedge in one of his works (a ghastly repurposed dune buggy he deemed an "energy sculpture" is Alabama's ride when he becomes famous). It is all very...strange. This came out on Elvira's Thriller Video label back in the day and I'm kind of shocked no specialty disc label hasn't jumped on putting it out.

We all know of Ed Wood and John Waters. Some know HG Lewis or Al Adamson. Not too many people have seen cheap films by Andy Milligan or Ted V. Mikels. If you've seen Andy Warhol it was probably in school. Here's the new kid on the scene, Fredric Hobbs. I have seen alot of bad movies that are good.I've only seen a few that were honestly GREAT BADFILMS. This is one of the best. It stars Chris Brooks(look up his career it will amaze you how successful he became)who stars as "Alambama". Alabama is a stage manager at the nightclub "Earthquake Magoons" who discovers a hidden chamber under the nightclub. Alambama stumbles onto the tomb of "Carter the Great", a stage magician from the 20's. Alabama dresses as Carter and becomes certain that he could be a magician as well. What Alabama doesn't know is that Carter the great was developing a substance called "Raw Zeta". Zeta looks like hashish and is refered to as "Cartoon Khaki". Raw Zeta refined gave Carter complete control of people electronically. Sound weird yet? O.K., here we go. Jazz bands, dope smoking transvestite vampires,voodoo ceremonies, Hip Lingo,greedy Scottish rock promoters,motorcycle races,hippies and more hippies, and last,parading Elephants and a vampire smorgasboard. need I say more except please put this on DVD! I only have an Elvira Chiller Theater VHS of it.

Credit's role from the front of the movie. They do not have names matching the pictures of the actors. We get an introduction narrative as with many old-time sci-fi movies.

I will not go through the details because if you can stomach this so-called movie then you will need the surprises. Keep the fast forward button handy.

This movie has all the ingredients for a good-bad movie. This is a renegade ... oops, independent, local movie maker in the genre of Ed Wood. An attempt to make it look old but with contemporary (1973) puns. Grainy screen with fake reel change and ad brakes marks.

The problem is the jokes and puns are dated, the attempt to be campy flat out misses the mark. We get fake movies today that are filmed as old-time black and white horror or sci-fi movies but they at least try to look like a fake black and white movie; this one just looks like a high school attempt without looking at any how-to books.

Some movies are artsy-fartsy and are valued for their uniqueness. Not this one. Some films are valued by their producers or actors. Not this one. I could write a book on what this movie is not. It could be a comic book.

If you like cult movies, you'll love Alabama's Ghost. It's about a black man who discovers a cave full of old magician's equipment and uses it to become a national celebrity. It turns out that his magical equipment is more powerful than he thought. The movie then takes on several bizarre twists involving a cult of vampires and a take-over-the-world plot. There's even an elephant at the end that plays an important role. It's hard to tell what this film was intended to be as it covers so many targets. It may take a couple of viewings to really understand it but it is definitely one of the most unusual films of the early 70s and is far more intelligent than a cheap schlock horror flick.

Christopher Brooks gives an energetic performance as the rising magician Alabama who is treated like a celebrity.He learned all his magic tricks from the dead Carter the Great whose ghost still haunts him.A big promoter turns out to be a megalomaniac vampire planning to enslave a viewing audience with zeta rays.There's also a Nazi femme scientist named Dr. Caligula who builds a robot version of Alabama!I'm not sure how to treat this surreal mix of horror,comedy,musical and sci-fi.One thing for sure:there were copious amounts of LSD involved.Director/producer/writer Fredric Hobbs of "Godmonster of Indian Flats" fame has crafted an utterly bizarre,multi-layered film which can only be described as one-of-a-kind.Still the action is dull in spots and the suspense is replaced by weirdness.Fans of surreal cinema should give this film a chance.