Headfirst Editor's Pick
'Kill all hippies! Eggshells perfectly simulates the death of the 60s in one batshit upheaval of free love, acid, utopian ideals and HAUNTED COMMUNES. Yes, this is the shoestring art-house prelude to Texas Chainsaw Massacre you didn't know existed, indulging Hooper's experiments in altered stop-motion states and supernatural psychedelia way before Leatherface invaded his sleep. Colour us intrigued...'

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A time and spaced film fantasy.

Ye Shall Know The Truth And The Truth Shall Set You Free.

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Eggshells is the headiest 'head' film you've never heard of, the debut feature from future 'Master Of Horror,' Tobe Hooper, the director of visceral classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released a half-decade later.

Part cinéma vérité documentary, part 'freakout fantasy,' and with virtually no traditional narrative, Eggshells is a surreal, experimental time capsule of the late-1960s counterculture, both psychedelic and political.

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In a series of acid-splashed reveries, it captures the atmosphere of a bohemian hippie commune in the woods outside Austin, Texas, in 1969, as the residents navigate the existential dilemma of whether to 'sell out' and conform to the mainstream society from which they have rebelled or else disappear as their utopian era comes to a close.

Full of Jean-Luc Godard-like rule-breaking trickery and playful pop art inflections, Eggshells is populated with not only anti-war student protests, nubile nudity, strange occurrences (like exploding paper planes and stop-motion paintings), bizarre sci-fi twists, and an eerie, underlying, malign/benign(?), semi-mystical 'crypto-embryonic hyper-electric presence', but also a comic undercurrent and a blistering score by Austin psych-folk legend Shiva's Headband.

'[ A ] mystifying exercise in existentialism...
confounding, yet still utterly fascinating.'
Far Out Magazine

+ Bar Sounds
Before and after the film, lose yourself in a psychedelic dream: DJs spin immersive sonic journeys through the realms of vintage prog, acid, fuzzed-out global psych, and more in the bar.

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Long considered lost, a print surfaced against all odds in late 2000, and Eggshells was shown for probably the first time in close to four decades at the SXSW Film Festival in 2009.

The first full-length film made in Austin, Eggshells, makes explicit the embryonic stages of Hooper's stylistic hallmarks with camera movements, point-of-view manipulations, and even shots foreshadowing iconic moments in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - the specific hippie commune house would later be utilized in his 1974 horror masterpiece.

Approached either as a lingering, dreamlike snapshot of the late-sixties hippie lifestyle and/or as a strange, uniquely compelling curio by a gifted director, the film is a rewarding, weird, and uncompromised watch for cult cinema fans, Hooper completists, and serious cinephiles.

'It's a real movie about 1969, kind of vérité but with a little push, improvisation mixed with magic. It was about the beginning and end of the subculture. It's a mixture of Warhol's TRASH and Disney's FANTASIA.'
Tobe Hooper

Hippy Trippy Summer 2026

You don't need substances to alter your perception, man - not if you dig the CUBE's season of psychedelic, far-out, and groovy movies from the 'Summer Of Love'.

Th 09 Jul 2026 // 20:00 - Eggshells (An American Freak Illumination) (1969)
Su 12 Jul 2026 // 17:00 - Monterey Pop (1968)
Th 16 Jul 2026 // 20:00 - The Trip (1967)
Th 23 Jul 2026 // 20:00 - Tonite, Let's All Make Love In London (1967)
Th 30 Jul 2026 // 20:00 - The Dunwich Horror (1970)

Headfirst Bristol: Hippy Trippy Summer 2026

Venue doors open 30 minutes before the advertised start time. All film screenings are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated and start with no more than a 10-minute curated selection of trailers.

The CUBE is a membership venue; please remember to bring your card. You can join at the door for £1 (life membership). Attend six events and receive a free drink.