Dead Girls (1990)

Directors:

Dennis Devine
Steve Jarvis

Writer:

Steve Jarvis (writer)

Genre:

Thriller | Horror

Tagline:

When rock 'n' roll fantasy becomes terrifying reality.

Plot:

A female band, who are exponents of "death rock", retreat to a cabin for the weekend. They soon find themselves being knocked off by a masked killer who uses weapons they have mentioned in their songs. |

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Rock Music | Teen Suicide | Slasher | Mass Suicide

Cast

David Chatfield	...	Mike
Jeff Herbick	...	Jeff
Brian Chin	...	Artie (as Brian Burr Chin)
Marshall Martin	...	Reverend
Carol Albright	...	Aunt
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Angela Eads	...	Dana
Diana Karanikas	...	Gina
Kay Schaber	...	Amy

Directed by
Dennis Devine
Steve Jarvis

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Steve Jarvis		writer

Produced by
Eugene James	....	producer

Original Music by
Eric Ekstrand

Cinematography by
Regge Bulman
Aaron Schneider

Film Editing by
Dennis Devine
Steve Jarvis

Art Direction by
Greg Hildreth

Makeup Department
Mark P. Case	....	special makeup effects artist

Sound Department
Greg Hildreth	....	boom operator
Bill Ratcliffe	....	sound mixer (as William Ratcliffe)

Stunts
Mike Martinez	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Carmen Bailey	....	assistant camera

Other crew
Anita Lerner	....	script supervisor

Distributors

• Raedon Video (video)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Soundtrack:

Angel of Death

Little seen, but surprisingly fresh and interesting late period slasher

I love slashers, I really do, and I've seen quite a few of them. A couple years back I went on a long binge of 80's slasher fare, picked off a substantial chunk of them, from the better known fare to a bunch of lesser known and often shonky fodder, most of which I enjoyed because like I said, I love slashers. Didn't get to see this one until a couple of nights back, but happily it brought me right back into the off kilter, lovably cheapskate world that slashers inhabit. Better still, its actually more consistently fun and surprising than a number of better known works and I'd say is the sort of thing genre afficionados should look up though its not without its flaws. The film concerns the Dead Girls, a band who play what they call "death rock" a fun sounding punky brew that gets moral guardian types all steamed up. Nodding to the real life concerns of these people, the younger sister of one of the band members engages in a suicide pact with a number of other youths, inspired by the Dead Girls music. Fortunately the sister survives, though not in a good state, so the amusing monikered Bertha Beirut head home to pick her up and takes her, along with the band, a nurse and some hangers on to a lakeside retreat for two weeks recovery. Unfortunately, as one might guess there's a killer about, offing folk in ways inspired by the bands lyrics. It sounds generic enough, but the acting and writing has a real pep to it, all the characters are lively and interesting and best of all, this is one of those slashers with a cast rife with suspects which makes for quite a fun guessing game throughout. My only significant issue with the film is that it does tend to go on a bit, its longer than the average slasher and the kills are not spaced out and also not especially violent (with a couple of exceptions). There's a premonition subplot that isn't especially well handled and doesn't add up to much and the earlier stages of the film could definitely be tightened up, even if the acting and writing skillfully stop boredom from ever setting in. Diana Karanikas is appealing as the lead girl, Gina, not quite so good in some early, one would expect dramatic moments, but better and better as the film goes on and always sympathetic. Angela Eads is suitably bitchy as the meaner member of the group, amusing at times with a good presence and Kay Schaber is quietly compelling as the weapons enthusiast Amy, pretty cool in the later stages. Everyone else does pretty nicely too, if a little uneven at times. Certainly none of them managed to annoy me and none were off putting. Gorewise there are a couple of zingers but the film isn't really playing that game, this is more about intrigue and slowly winding tension, coming to a head in the fine climax, drawn out, nutty and loaded with surprise. The final twenty five minutes or so is all pretty great in fact. Altogether I dug this one quite a bit and I think it deserves to be better known. Part of my enthusiasm comes from the joy of coming across an impressive relative obscurity and folks who lay claim to overrated virtues like taste, discernment and whatnot may scoff at this, but it more than did the trick for me, which is all that counts in my book.