Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical

Some films are notorious because of the filmmaker involved, a problematic actor, or the daring story they tried to tell. Others are notorious because they’re complete bullshit. Thus we have 1936’s Reefer Madness from director Louis J. Gasiner. Originally financed as a morality film by a church group and titled Tell Your Children, it was later bought, recut, and sold on the exploitation circuit, successfully dodging censorship scrutiny for its messaging while reaping in the box office bucks. 

Unfortunately, that messaging was just a bunch of bunk largely made up to sensationalize marijuana to scare suburban whities like my great grandparents. Mostly forgotten for a couple of decades, Reefer Madness regained a measure of popularity in the 1970s for its built-in ridiculous entertainment value while doing what else - Getting high! Thus it’s remained a staple of muckraking exploitation cinema, its morality messaging long replaced by the haze-induced hoots and howls of midnight moviegoers with a severe case of the munchies. 

Often parodied, riffed, and mocked, the film was retrofitted for a stage musical in 1998 from writer/producer Kevin Murphy (no relation to MST3k’s Kevin Murphy). A small hit, the musical would become a feature film Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical from director Andy Fickman starring Kristen Bell, Steven Weber, Alan Cumming, Neve Campbell, and Ana Gasteyer. A barely 66-minute movie is padded to almost two hours thanks to a hilarious array of musical numbers and genuine high-camp silliness. 

My first experience with the musical was seated watching some college friends giving it everything they had. It was a hoot on stage, and the same can be said about this movie. With the all-star ensemble cast, the film finds its silly energy fast with Alan Cumming taking over the fear-mongering doctor role and like the original film, the events play out as a recreation of “actual events.” It’s all silly fun as each key moment of the original film is given a high-energy musical spin. 

Now if there is a gripe to be had, all of the musical numbers, as fun as they may be, almost doubles the length of the original film. By the time we’re getting into the daffy climactic courtroom trial, it’s only the halfway mark of the film musical. Normally a long musical isn’t a problem, after all, people are lining up to see a three-hour version of just the first half of Wicked. However, in the case of a musical parody like Reefer Madness, length runs the risk of overplaying the joke. Overall I enjoyed the hell out of the film, it was actually a fun watch while grooving on a quarter hit of indica, I also felt that a couple of musical numbers and silly interludes could have been cut for time. 90-95 minutes was the sweet spot for a film like this. Almost two hours, that’s a bit of a stretch, but a fun one! Sober or flying, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical is still an entertaining joint to inhale. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray  
Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical puffs and passes onto Blu-ray with a single-disc release from Darkstar Pictures and OCN Distribution. Pressed on a Region A BD25 disc, the disc is housed in a standard clear case. If you order from Vinegar Syndrome you can pick up a stylish exclusive Slipcover. The disc loads to a standard main menu with basic navigation options. 

The weed-infused song and dance numbers of Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical arrives on Blu-ray with a pleasing 1080p 1.78:1 transfer. The film is split between black and white for the community meeting scenes, and then full color for the film they’re supposedly watching - which is a rather clever gag in its own right. Throughout, details are sharp and clear, even with some hazy filters to give the main feature that idyllic dreamlike quality. For the main film, colors are bright and bold with striking primaries and various shades of purple and green. The grayscale for the community meeting sequences is on point for deep blacks, bright whites, and shadow gradience.

On the audio front, we have an excellent DTS-HD MA 2.0 track to indulge. The artwork indicates it's supposed to be a 5.1 mix, but on disc, it’s only 2.0. Not sure where the mixup happened there, but the good news is even in 2.0 it works well. Given the status as a musical, all of the dialog and songs get top priority. The bigger the music number or the busier the scene, the soundscape nicely expands. Again, the songs are well prioritized so you get every lyric, and even with the small-ish stature of some of the staging, the audio mixing makes the stage feel larger and more expansive. All around a solid audio mix for this daffy picture.

Bonus features are sadly a bit of a bust. Only a trailer. I would have loved to see some kind of retrospective about the original musical, the adaptation of the book, lyrics, and staging into a feature film, but unfortunately, that is not to be. 

• Trailer

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical isn’t a high-art masterpiece, but it's a damn fun time. It can certainly be argued that the film could be a tad shorter, but the camp hilarity offers up plenty of energy, earworm-infectious songs, and entertainment value to keep your high going through to the end. Now thanks to Darkstar Pictures and OCN Distribution, the film is given a fitting 1080p Blu-ray upgrade with an all-around strong A/V presentation. I would have loved to see some more bonus features, but this disc is Recommended