'NAKED LUNCH' IS A TERRIFYING TRIP INSIDE THE WORLD OF A DRUG USER.

Movies have an interesting power over people. Some can suggest the
reality of actions onscreen, making one believe the things in the film
are actually happening.

Others can show a hallucinatory world where you are taken on an imaginative,
escapist tour.

One of the latter films I highly recommend is David Cronenberg's "Naked
Lunch." Few films I have seen have been so creepily fantastic.
It was adapted from a book that critics joked about, saying it was
impossible to translate to the big screen. Cronenberg is up for the
challenge, making for a confusing, crazy, crazy ride.

This one is not for younger viewers.

The plot revolves around a bug exterminator in the 1950s named Bill
Lee. Lee is a recovering drug addict, and his junkie wife takes the
powder used to kill the bugs and injects it.

Lee makes the dangerous choice to do this with her--and begins seeing
things no man should see.

He is taken to a world known as the Interzone, a planet full of seedy
bars and giant talking insects. He finds there many shady characters
who make little sense and command him to do horrible things.

Few films make as good anti-drug material as this one. Cronenberg and
the author of the novel, William S. Burroughs, were both heavy users
of all sorts of hallucinatory substances while making this, and it
shows. Its impact comes from showing drug use from the inside out,
instead of preaching about it from the outside--like the difference in
impact between seeing a burnt-out hobo on the street, as opposed to
your local friendly D.A.R.E. officer.

The plot itself is obtuse and complicated, but the film is still very
good due to the freakiness of its images.

Sometimes not understanding what is happening makes the appearance of
a giant cockroach commanding the protagonist much scarier. Please,
kids. Don't do drugs.

Joe Holmes is a junior at Stafford High School.