by Kimberly Rizzo

The Boston Underground Film Festival began Wednesday and will continue through Sunday at Davis Square’s Somerville Theatre.

Featuring genuinely alternative films from filmmakers whose vision runs from the radical to the demented, the BUFF’s crowning feature was “Thundercrack!,” a deliciously deviant film from 1975.

There, to introduce the film and answer questions afterward, was Melinda McDowell, an actress from the film and the sister of director Curt McDowell.

While the film’s quirkiness would turn off most movie-goers, this is exactly what makes it so perfect for an Underground Film Festival. A few audience members left at intermission, but far more of them stayed until the end.

At the pinnacle of its art-house tour, there were five prints on 16mm film. As more and more of them were confiscated because of the outrageous sexual material, the count dwindled down to only one.

The copy shown this weekend at the Somerville Theatre is the sole survivor, and it is so rapidly deteriorating that after only one more show it will be permanently removed from art-house and festival circulation.

McDowell said she searches for the sugar daddy who will help her raise the $25,000 it will require to create a new print. Until then, the films fans will have to await the release the authorized DVD version, which will take place sometime this year, the film’s 30th anniversary.

Fans will only have to venture so far out of the woodwork to buy it from the film’s Web site, thundercrackthefilm.com, as it will not be available anywhere else. 

Even when ready for mass distribution direct from the source and into your own home, “Thundercrack!” will remain genuinely one-of-a-kind and a true independent.