Long before Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez even considered the idea, other ambitious fan-boy directors already attempted to revive the Grindhouse cinema. Of course, these directors were inexperienced and unknown, so their movies never properly received the attention they deserved. Todd Morris' "A Gun for Jennifer" is a prototypic example to state this theory. Judging by the story content, the gritty filming style and the excessive amount of graphic violence, it is plain obvious that Morris watched way too many exploitation & trash movies as a kid and then suddenly decided one day to gather together a bunch of friends to shoot his very own and cheap homage to 70's Grindhouse cinema. Well, I can only applaud Todd Morris and everyone else involved in this production, as I could only dream about realizing such a project of my own. Everything about "A Gun for Jennifer" is extremely basic and gratuitous - subject material as well as the elaboration - but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. Quite the contrary even; a straightforward plot, amateurish acting and clumsy camera-work are almost fundamental characteristics in order to achieve an authentic Grindhouse movie! Todd Morris borrows and even shamelessly copies several elements from older films, notably "I Spit on your Grave", Abel Ferrara's "Ms. 45" and the virtually unknown "Rape Squad". It's about a beautiful young woman who flees from Ohio to New York City, for reasons explained later in the film, and almost immediately becomes the victim of scum rapists. She gets rudely rescued when a van full of tough chicks passes by and kills the rapists without hesitating. The girls apparently all work together in a nightclub and, since they got a little fed up with the endless amount of unsolved rape cases and various other acts of violence against women, they decided to form some sort of vigilante posse and roam the streets at night. Since she has nowhere else to go and because, after all, these women rescued here, the girl choosing the false Jennifer joins the gang. She gradually gets sucked more and more into a world of vengeance and violence, but also the fanatic female police detective Perez comes closer to uncovering their identities.
What we have here, my dear fellow smut & exploitation fanatics (as you are the only ones likely to read the comments for this type of movies), is an almost perfect tribute to politically incorrect early 70's trash! The characters are complete stereotypes (all men are scum, all women are tough mothers), the sleaze-level is extremely high in spite of very little nudity shown on screen, the soundtrack and photography make you feel uncomfortable and the violence is uncompromising to say the least. Although bringing little variety in the killings, "A Gun for Jennifer" is literally a bloodbath of a film and particularly the climax goes far over the top in depicting sick and sadistic ferocity. Deborah Twiss, who also co-wrote the screenplay, as well as her girlfriends aren't likely to win any major acting awards in their careers but the have the exact right looks, charisma and tough facials expression for this kind of role. The soundtrack is simply amazing and contains some marvelously apt songs. If you want to know what I'm referring to, just look up Moloko's "Killa Bunnies" on YouTube! Purely talking in terms of good cinema, "A Gun for Jennifer" probably doesn't deserve a rating any higher than 5 or 6, but I'm generously giving an 8 for sheer respect towards Todd Morris and his crew.
