10 Things to Know About 'Down on Us'

Down on Us is one of the strangest movies of 1984. It’s a conspiracy drama which shows the government hiring an assassin to kill ‘the pied pipers of rock n’roll’ Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. By the film’s logic, each of these young rock stars didn’t die because of drugs, they were assassinated to keep them from speaking out against Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War.

It’s very silly and truly a so bad it’s hilarious brand of movie. We’ve seen it twice now and it’s funnier on each new viewing. Bad dialogue, decent knockoff music, and shady government guys literally wearing trenchcoats and fedoras like a parody of 40s gangster movies.

Here are 10 Things to Know About Down on Us

10 Conspiracy Framework

The movie’s central thesis is that these three icons were "Pied Pipers" leading the youth astray from establishment values. It’s a wild ride involving shadowy agents and a killer who fakes drug deaths, even going so far as to give poor Janis Joplin post-mortem needle marks to sell the lie.

9 All Original Music

Larry Buchanan clearly didn’t have the cash for the real hits, so we get a collection of sound-alike knockoffs. Local musicians crafted tracks like “Today or Tomorrow” so the actors could mime along to something that sounds just enough like the real thing to be funny.

8 Cast Highlights

Gregory Allen Chatman does his best air guitar as Hendrix in his lone big role, while Riba Meryl takes on Janis before her stint on the sitcom Throb. Bryan Wolf steps in as the Lizard King, with Sandy Kenyon appearing as the man behind the hits.

7 Cinematographer Pedigree

Believe it or not, the lighting was handled by Nicholas Josef von Sternberg. He’s the son of the guy who made Marlene Dietrich a star, though by the 80s, he was mostly grinding out low-budget gigs like this one.

6 Production Style

This is peak guerrilla filmmaking with tiny sets and Texas locations. Despite having zero money, Buchanan packed the script with over 40 speaking parts, trying to mix a fake documentary feel with total melodrama.

5 Alternate Title Timing

When Oliver Stone’s big-budget The Doors movie was announced, this flick was rebranded as Beyond the Doors. It felt like a total mockbuster move, even though it was actually filmed way back in the early 80s.

4 Buchanan’s Broader Pattern

This wasn’t a one-off; the director loved a good conspiracy, having tackled Marilyn Monroe and JFK before. He even kicks things off with a George Bernard Shaw quote about how killing people is just "extreme censorship."

3 Limited Release

You weren’t going to see this at the multiplex. It mostly played in places like Austin before vanishing into late-night TV and video bins. It was so rare that for years, people thought it was just a myth.

2 Critical Reception

Critics usually tear it apart for being tasteless or just plain incompetent, pointing out the terrible miming and goofy poetry. But if you love high-grade schlock, its earnest paranoia is part of the charm.

1 Actor Outcomes

For the main guys playing Jimi and Jim, this was pretty much the end of the road in Hollywood. Riba Meryl kept working, and the film itself has become a weird legend for fans of the truly bizarre and paranoid.

It’s the ultimate example of how Buchanan could be incredibly ambitious with absolutely no budget. If you’re into cult exploitation or just want to see some wild speculation, it’s out there on streaming—just be ready for how truly strange it gets!

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