It comes to our attention from America for an exclusive Italian review, She Kills, a film written and directed by Ron Bonk (The Vicious Sweet, Strawberry Estates, Clay and "Gang Them Style" at Hi-8) and pays homage to the exploitation cinema of the 1970s.. Specifically, She Kills (USA - 2015) draws on almost every exploitation subgenre then veers toward a personal path punctuated by humor and constant, wholesome comedy.
In fact, the film, so carefully edited in aesthetics as to be perfectly retro, presents a roundup of very funny grotesque sequences played by actors, all well characterized, whose bad (but adorable) acting is blatantly intentional. The result is a delirious and highly demented film product in which there is no shortage of vulgarity and obscene acts capable of grossing out but at the same time also entertaining the audience.
The protagonist of the story is Sadie (Jennie Russo), a virginal girl who is about to marry Edwin (Kirk LaSalle). During a walk immersed in nature, the girl attracts the attention of Reggie (Michael Merchant), one of the members of "The Touchers" gang, but the arrival of her fiancé, Edwin (Kirk LaSalle), will cool the thug's hot carnal desire. Reggie and his friends will follow the couple as they take refuge in a motel room for their honeymoon after the wedding. Precisely during the abuse, Sadie will discover that she has a cursed and therefore very special vagina, which she intends to exploit to take revenge on the men who have destroyed her life.
Several films have been made on dangerous female and male private parts including Mitchell Lichtenstein's trivial "Teeth" and Frank Henenlotter's not inconsiderable "Bad Biology." She Kills is completely different in that the protagonist exploits her vagina to kill in different and ingenious ways. It follows that, as in rape&revenge, Sadie is transformed into a heroine thirsting for revenge and surrounding herself with corpses by using her vaginal powers at will. This makes the film (whose running time is about 100 minutes) consistently interesting because it never lapses into banality and monotony but guarantees nothing but atrocity and entertainment. Given the subject matter, She Kills is full of shots of intimate parts and impractical and hilarious sex acts, and of course in some moments disgust is assured!
She Kills is filmed and edited in true Grindhouse style with clear homages to "Thriller - A Cruel Picture" but also to "Kill Bill," "The Crow," "Braindead" and "Bad Taste." The latter two, remembered in Bonk's film for the succulent handcrafted special effects (by Colby Flinchum), splatter, gore and high rate of dementia. Such homages are so well integrated as to make She Kills a magnificent demented exploitation film, well written and directed. A note of credit also goes to the cast (Jennie Russo, Jody Pucello, Trey Harrison, Michael Merchant, David Royal, and Martha Zemsta), especially the lead actress, Jennie Russo, who gives an extraordinary acting performance. Sadie is indeed the queen of the film, a dangerous, sympathetic, and imaginative heroine of killing.
The music is by composer Emmett Van Slyke. Chris Irvine is the director of photography.
