Don’t Play Us Cheap (1973, Melvin Van Peebles)

Set on the theater stage, Mr. Melvin Van Peebles adapted his “Saaaa-turday!!! Night” party musical for the screen. Two mischievous bat-devils suddenly appear in one family’s Harlem home to break and derange their festivities. The whole visit is nightmarish, very strange, and still very much a party of strange song, stomp, and stark lighting changes for the good and wicked alike. The devil is a roach to be smashed (smash him!) and Broadway never was such a fine horrorshow.