''The Sky Is Falling'', also known as ''Las Flores Del Vicio'' ( English: ''The Flowers of Vice''), released in the United States as ''Bloodbath'', is a 1979 Spanish surrealist thriller film directed by Silvio Narizzano and written by Gonzalo Suarez. It stars

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...

, Carroll Baker, 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) and his alcoholic wife (

Faith Brook Faith Brook (16 February 1922 – 11 March 2012) was an English actress who appeared on stage, in films and on television, generally in upper-class roles. She was the daughter of actor Clive Brook. Early years Although she was born in York ...

), and a jaded

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

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 Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Hol ...

Cast

as Chicken * Carroll Baker as Treasure * Richard Todd as Terence *

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'' (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 and horror films 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