''The Sky Is Falling'', also known as ''Las Flores Del Vicio'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: ''The Flowers of Vice''), released in the United States as ''Bloodbath'', is a 1979 Spanish

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

thriller film directed by

Silvio Narizzano Silvio Narizzano (8 February 192726 July 2011) was a Canadian film and television director who worked primarily in the United Kingdom. His directorial credits included the critically acclaimed films '' Georgy Girl'' (1966) and ''Loot'' (1970), w ...

and written by Gonzalo Suarez. It stars Dennis Hopper,

Carroll Baker Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is an American former actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in t ...

, and Win Wells as hopeless American expatriates living in a Spanish village where citizens are dying mysterious deaths after the arrival of a religious cult. The film has been characterized as an example of the frenetic roles played by Hopper in the 1970s.

Plot

A drug-addicted poet named Chicken (Hopper), struggling to separate reality from fantasy, lives in a small Spanish village with other expatriates. These include a washed up alcoholic actress named Treasure (Carroll Baker), a retired British Air Corps captain (

Richard Todd Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd (11 June 19193 December 2009) was an Irish-British actor known for his leading man roles of the 1950s. He received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, and an Academy Award for Best Actor n ...

) and his alcoholic wife ( Faith Brook), and a jaded homosexual man (Win Wells). Chicken struggles with his addiction while having vivid hallucinations about his religious mother. Treasure is always waiting for a call from Hollywood in order to stage a comeback, and spends her time showing off her album of publicity photos. The expatriates, bored by their life in the village, encounter a group of young hippies who they feel a bond toward, but throughout the film each of the expatriates end up dead in various, disturbing ways. These deaths are juxtaposed with the life of the villagers in bizarre and surreal ways that develops a sense of menace in the film. It is implied that the deaths are caused by the band of hippies evoking a religious cult or the Manson family, and the deaths of the villagers are followed by a communal funeral held on Good Friday.

Cast

* Dennis Hopper as Chicken *

as Treasure *

as Terence * Faith Brook as Heather *Win Wells as Allen *David Carpenter as Salt *Alibe as Susannah *Inma de Santis as Buenaventura *Curtis Moseley as Young Chicken *Ana Pastor as Pucherita

Production

The film was filmed in Mojacar, Almeria, Spain in 1979, a small seaside village of local Spaniards, British and American expatriates, some of whom were featured in this movie. One of the extras, a young boy who was trampled at the end of the movie, looking towards the sky, was an American living in Spain whose parents ran a local saloon (El Saloon) and had befriended the director and many of the cast members. Both Carroll Baker and Dennis Hopper, who had starred together in ''

Giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

'' (1956), had been out of major Hollywood pictures for some time when they were cast in the film; Baker had been living in Europe and making

giallo In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...

and

horror films Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoc ...

in Italian productions.

References

External links

*
Dennis Hopper page on Pimpadelic Wonderland

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sky Is Falling 1979 films English-language Spanish films 1970s horror thriller films 1979 horror films Spanish horror thriller films 1970s avant-garde and experimental films Films directed by Silvio Narizzano Films set in Spain Films shot in Almería Films scored by José Nieto