page_title: Thundercrack!
section_title: Release
hierarchical_section_title: Thundercrack! / Release
caption_attribution_description: English: Ken Scudder, Mark Ellinger, and Melinda McDowell with Peaches Christ at a Q&amp;A for Thundercrack! at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California, United States
context_page_description: Thundercrack! is a 1975 pornographic black comedy horror film written, edited, shot and directed by Curt McDowell, and written by George Kuchar based on a story by McDowell and Mark Ellinger. It stars Marion Eaton, Ken Scudder, Melinda McDowell and George Kuchar. Combining an "old dark house" mystery with hardcore sex scenes, Thundercrack! is more recently regarded as a cult film. It bears the influences of Jack Smith’s lush, DIY, camp aesthetic, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s explosive melodrama, and Nan Goldin’s glimpses of countercultural bohemia.
context_section_description: Because of its graphic sex including masturbation, heterosexual and homosexual couplings, the film is unavailable in many areas of the world. However, the film is available on DVD in parts of Europe. Synapse Films was working closely with the director's sister and Thundercrack! actress, Melinda McDowell for a 35th anniversary DVD edition originally due to be released in 2010. In a film fan blog published June 7, 2013, the owners of Synapse Films say they are still working on an upcoming release of the film. The Synapse Blu-Ray/DVD was released in 2015 for the film's 40th anniversary.
  On December 11, 2015, for the film's fortieth anniversary, Thundercrack! screened at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California in an event hosted by drag queen Peaches Christ.
caption: Ken Scudder, Mark Ellinger, and Melinda McDowell at a screening with Peaches Christ in 2015
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