One label specializing in particularly cut-rate and strange VHS fare was Raedon Video, which sprang up in 1987 and had an under-the-radar run until 1992 with titles like Death Collector, Hollywood's New Blood, Games of Survival, Feelin' Screwy, and Curse of the Queerwolf. Tucked away near the end of the Raedon era was Punk Vacation, a little number shot in 1987 but unseen until its VHS debut in 1990.
Sort of a New Wave/punksploitation spin on those small town mayhem stories popularized by the likes of Billy Jack and Walking Tall, this budget-impaired tale takes place in a California hamlet (actually Westlake Village) where some vengeful punks take their frustration out on a vending machine and end up killing the owner of a local diner. That sets off a chain of eye-for-an-eye retribution involving the owner's daughter (Fatal Beauty's Sandra Bogan), a right-wing sheriff (unabashed Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey muse Louis Waldon from Blue Movie and Lonesome Cowboys), punk gang leader Ramrod (976-EVIL's Roxanne Rogers) and a heroic cop played by the film's producer, Stephen Fusci under his frequent screen name, Stephen Fiachi, who also produced and starred in the earlier Nomad Riders (1984).
That's hardly the only pseudonym on Punk Vacation, however, as director "Stanley Lewis" was later outed as an AFI graduate (real name still unknown), and pulled off the project at the eleventh hour when he proved incapable of handling the film's budget (estimated as $75,000) and logistical demands. Fusci proved to be a valuable source of information about this film when it was revived for a 2013 Blu-ray and DVD edition from the intrepid film archaeologists at Vinegar Syndrome. The film's portrayal of punk culture is shaky at best, drawing more inspiration from MTV music video culture with its array of gaudy colors and wild, feathered hairstyles, but it does earn some points for sketching its gang characters with a more subtlety than many of its peers.
While most films of this ilk tend to feature one or two actors who would go on to become Hollywood names, this one breaks away from tradition by featuring its most prominent participant behind the camera: cinematographer Daryn Okada, a prominent member of the American Society of Cinematographers (and its president for three years) as well as an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, including a lengthy stint on its Sci-Tech Committee and, as of this writing, a Governor of the Cinematographers Branch alongside John Bailey and Caleb Deschanel. He also employed the Academy's breakthrough ACES real-time color correction system on the series Castle. The two Fusci films were his first credited cinematographer gigs, which he took essentially as calling cards to show off his talent. The gambit worked as he would immediately go on to shoot Phantasm II (1988) for Universal, followed by such studio films as Lake Placid (1999), Mean Girls (2004), Baby Mama (2008) and Let's Be Cops (2014). It could only happen in Hollywood.
Producer: Stephen Fusci and William H. Carter
Director: Stanley Lewis
Screenplay: Lance Smith and Harvey Richelson
Cinematography: Daryn Okada
Film Editing: Dan Cogan
Art Direction: Inga Ojala
Set Decoration: Inga Ojala
Music: Ed Grenga and Ross Vannelli
Makeup Department: Dawn Yeowell-Kovacs
Cast: Roxanne Rogers, Don Martin, Louis Waldon, Kevin Lewis.
by Nathaniel Thompson
