-Grindhouse Fest spotlights the cult gems, sleaze classics, and deranged wonders that defined exploitation cinema’s golden run. Proceed with delight and caution-
Directed by Byron Mabe
Written by Carl Monson
Starring:
- Ernie F. Orsatti as Ollie (credited as Eric Wahl)
- Judy Wood as Genna
- Buck Kartalian as Artie / The Devil (credited as Buck Bucky)
- Pat Barrington as Chickie (credited as Camille Grant)
- Sharon Carr as Suzie
- Lila Cranston Lamont as Fran (credited as Lila Lamont)
Release Date: February 1, 1968
Rating: 
Psychedelic exploitation usually split into two camps: square propaganda for worried parents or far-out fun for everyone else. Byron Mabe’s The Acid Eaters couldn’t be less interested in scare tactics, tearing through its running time as an acid-fried bikersploitation joyride with a healthy dose of nudie cutie cheek. If someone distilled the words “groovy,” “sleazy,” and “hallucinogenic” into a single 35mm print, it would probably look a lot like The Acid Eaters. This David F. Friedman production bottles pure drive-in delirium in a candy-colored, Los Angeles-shot head trip, sending a gang of bikers and their stacked girlfriends on a brain-liquefying LSD odyssey. The grand finale unfolds inside a bizarre pyramid in the middle of nowhere, where sex, drugs, and free-love insanity swirl together in a pop-art colored spectacle that resembles Georges Méliès’ hand-painted cinema after one tab of acid too many.
