Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Blistering performances.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Frederic Hobbs, a famously reclusive film industry dissenter, upreared a brief syllabus of titles during his 70s-era tenure...movies so waywardly absonant and creatively impulsive that only a highly preferential entente is likely to ardently apprize them. Case in point...ALABAMA'S GHOST.The demented story(which is overdeveloped to Rube Golberg proportions) concerns Alabama, a San Francisco jazz club employee, who discovers by mere chance the hidden bounty of a legendary magician. Among the relics is an experimental Nazi drug confection which has been long sought-after by a groovy underbelly society of rock-music industry vampires. These creatures of the night learn of Alabama's discovery, and devise a scheme to make him an unwitting gambit in their sinister world domination plot. As is case with the director's other projects, ALABAMA'S GHOST exhibits surprisingly streamlined professionalism for such barmy, capricious material. The film presents well-defined characters, solid performances, and acceptable effects for the time. To think that genuine erudition and skill were applied to this kaleidoscopic hash-dream is mystifying...but maverick 'metteur en scene' Hobbs did it again with GODMONSTER OF Indian FLATS, an equally nonrepresentational and surprisingly well-crafted celluloid freakshow. A most exotic truffle, though enjoyable to only the most...um...distinguished palates.6/10

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.

Race car drivers say that 100 mph seems fast till you've driven 150, and 150 mph seems fast till you've driven 250.OK.Andalusian Dog seems breathtakingly bizarre till you've seen Eraserhead, and Eraserhead seems breathtakingly bizarre till you've seen Begotten.And Begotten seems breathtakingly bizarre till you've seen the works of C. Frederic Hobbs. Race fans, there is NOTHING in all the world of film like the works of C. Frederic Hobbs.Alabama's Ghost comes as close as any of his films to having a coherent plot, and it only involves hippies, rock concerts, voodoo, ghosts, vampires, robots, magicians, corrupt multinational corporations, elephants and Mystery Gas. And the Fabulous Woodmobile, cruising the Sunset District in San Francisco, of course.What's really startling is that somebody gave him a LOT of money to make Alabama's Ghost. There's sets, lighting, hundreds of extras, costumes, lots and lots of effects. Somehow that makes Alabama's Ghost SO WRONG. You watch some awful cheeseball like Night of Horror or Plutonium Baby, and at least some part of the weirdness is excusable on the basis that they were obviously making the film off the headroom on their Discover cards. But Alabama's Ghost was made with an actual budget, and that's EVIL. I mean, I've got a script about a tribe of cannibals living in Thunder Bay, Ontario, building a secret temple in the woods out of Twizzlers, and nobody's beating down MY door waving a checkbook - how did this guy get the funds for FOUR of the flakiest movies ever made?

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.