Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)

Ah, that small but big-hearted genre we all know and love - Gender Bender Horror.

Okay, it's maybe not so much a genre as it is one movie. I can't think of another horror film who's storyline involves it's main character transforming from one sex into another.

Sure, there are a few cross-dressing movie villains out there, and the odd fellow who slaughters women so he can dress up in their skins (gross). But full on sexual transmutation?

I don't think so. (There WAS a cheese-filled comedy in '95 called Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, but I'm talkin' HORROR here. Nuff said.)

Or... is it? If your memory/Google skills are better than mine and you can come up with another film or two that might fit into Gender Bender Horror, drop a line and I'll happily update my opinion AND (bonus) this post.

Anyway. Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde was done in 1971 by the Amazing, Fantastic, Retro-flick-alicious HAMMER FILMS. When I first saw the title I assumed it was an exploitation flick, but Hammer generally plays their horror pretty straight, so I was intrigued. And they did play it totally straight.

Which is what makes the film so fun. They play it just like Robert Louis Stevenson wrote it: Jekyll is earnest, Hyde is monstrous, and their downfall is tragic. Not a cheese-filled scene anywhere.

With maybe the exception of Hyde, upon finding herself a woman, fondling her own breasts for a minute or two. But what man among us wouldn't do the same, if placed in a similar situation? (If you DENY, you also LIE.)

The story is... well, we know the story 'cause it's - THE story: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We've seen it done a million times - with varying levels of faithfulness to Stevenson's novella. Let's see, according to the infallable Wikipedia, we've had:

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1910, 1912, 1920, 1920 again, 1920 a third time, 1931, 1941, 1973, 1981, 1985, 1989, 2002, 2008)
The Testament of Dr. Cordelier (1959)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968)
I, Monster (1971)
Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972)
Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980)
Edge Of Sanity (1989)
Jekyll & Hyde (1990, 1997)
Mary Reilly (1996)
Jekyll + Hyde (2006)
Jekyll (2007)

And that's just the more or less straight-on horror films.

Anyway. It's a good watch and an interesting take on the story. Competently produced, well acted and (a bit surprisingly) focused on the horror of the tale rather than on female nudity. You should see it.

THREE BENT BRAINS

Terminatrix (1995)

lame softcore masquerades as robot movie

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The Review

I knew better, I really did.

But it was about robots! Was I supposed to just walk away from that? Even when I knew it was an unheard of sexploitation flick, that it couldn't possibly have had the budget to include any cool robot scenes?

I couldn't stop myself. It was a robot movie I hadn't seen (and there are so few of those anymore); I had to take the chance.

It was a total bust. My first *no brains* review. Some slue about sex being regulated in the future and a rebellion of free love led by some lady and a killer cyborg sent back in time to off the lady's dad before he conceived her.

Sound familiar? Okay, I knew it was a Terminator spoof when I put it in the queue. Even then, I wasn't prepared for the banality of the film. No cool robot scenes. None. All robotic coolness was implied and not seen.

Plenty of ridiculous simulated sex scenes, though. Seen and not implied.

Sigh.

In the immortal words of Melvin Udall, "I'd be the luckiest guy alive if that did it for me".

It's a NO BRAINER.

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The Trailer

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The Details

Cast
Yuuki Fujisawa
Saeko Ichijou
Kei Mizutani ... Terminatrix

Director
Mikio Hirota

MPAA Rating
Unrated (for nudity, simulated sex and lame dialogue)

Runtime
74 minutes

Language
Japanese with English subtitles

Link
Terminatrix at IMDB

Zombie Strippers (2008)

Old strippers never die, they just shoot billiard balls from their....

I'm only a little ashamed to say that I'm not a lot ashamed to admit I couldn't pass up a film with a title like this.


I'm not particularly a fan of zombies OR strippers, but there are certain words in our language, when paired together, that create something more than just their letters combined. Something... bigger than all of us.


I don't mean to say Zombie Strippers is a good movie. It's a bad movie. But I felt compelled to watch, just to see what could or would possibly unfold during a movie pairing these two words in it's title.


Well, save your money.



No. Really. Save it and buy yourself something nice. You're worth it.



The story's the same you find in most any zombie film: unidentified military entity creates and then loses zombifying potion, various and sundry innocents are infected and the brain barbecue begins.



In this case the infected folks are strippers and (in most cases) WANT to be zombified because their customers love watching zombies dance and the dead girls are making more money. (I know. What town is this?)



Anyway, much bloodiness and occasional funniness occur until the unidentified military entity comes in and cleans up the mess.



I think the question of whether you should see this movie can be answered here: 

If seeing two dead strippers battle for supremacy, and Stripper A blows Stripper B's legs off by inserting billiard balls into her own vagina, then using her amazing-stripper-pelvic-muscle-strength to hurl them at Stripper B like cannon balls does anything for you at at all - this is your movie.



Otherwise....



ONE STRIPPED DOWN BRAIN


The Trailer




The Details



Cast

Jenna Jameson...Kat

Robert Englund...Ian

Roxy Saint...Lillith

Penny Drake...Sox

Whitney Anderson...Gaia

Jennifer Holland...Jessy

Shamron Moore...Jeannie

Jeannette Sousa ...Berengé

Carmit Levité...Madame Blavatski

John Hawkes...Davis

Brad Milne...Dr. Chushfeld

Zak Kilberg...Byrdflough

Jen Alex Gonzalez...Lt. Ryker

Jessica Custodio...Kwan

Laura Bach...Sassy Sue



Director

Jay Lee



MPAA Rating

USA: R/Unrated (for boobs, gore and tasteless humor)



Runtime

94 minutes



Taglines

Live Dead Nudes


They'll dance for a fee, but devour you for free.



Language

English



Link

Zombie Strippers at Wikipedia


Kekko Kamen (2004)

Masked Vigilante bares all, Keeps Students' dreams Alive

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The Review

Okay, I'll just say it like it is:

This movie is about a Naked Female Ninja (Kekko Kamen) who protects students at an all-girls school from their lecherous teachers. She wears a red mask, boots, gloves and a long scarf (that dutifully hides her pink bits).

As near as I can tell, "Kekko Kamen" translates to "Wonderful Mask". (Kamen is a word that refers to any Japanese masked hero, and Kekko, meaning Wonderful, refers not to her mask but to her... body. Indeed. Her deal is that she stuns her opponents with the beauty of her body, and then, POW! (Right in the kisser!)

Oh, and she has magical powers. And rides a red scooter through the school's hallways. And she can really bust a move with her nunchaku.

Um, I'd go on to expand upon the film's finer points... but that's really about it.

I was offered this movie by my good buddy Automated-Netflix-Man, "based on [my] interest in Films from Japan". And - let's face it - after reading the synopsis I wasn't gonna NOT give it a try.

This particular film fits somewhere in the midst of a long string of movies (and cartoons), all with more or less the same plot and all based on a Japanese comic book series (also all with more or less the same plot) by a guy named Go Nagai.

(What?? A character like this, written by a man??)

I know.

So anyway, it turns out the movie was... HIL-AR-I-OUS.

...In an over the top we-know-we're-being-sexist-but-we're-just-having-fun sort of way, it was just funnier than a wailing banshee. I mean, we've got dialogue-gems like

(Miss Keiko, who needs to "change" into her Kekko Kamen persona, to a student)
"You'd better leave now, for your own safety and to further the plot."

and

(Kekko Kamen to a villain, whose costume and mask consist of stolen women's underwear stitched together)
"Panties are sacred to a woman. Putting them on your head is unspeakable!"

How could you not stifle a grin?

So. Yeah. There really isn't anything else to say about this one. Oh, except Kekko Kamen usually K.O.s her enemies by putting their necks in a leg scissor lock until they pass out. It's called the "muffocation" attack. You know, like "suffocation" but with an "m". As in being suffocated by her m....

True story.

FOUR PINK BRAINS

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The Trailer

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The Details

Cast
Shino Saito (Keiko Natsuwata / Kekko Kamen)
Juri Inahara (Mayumi Takahashi)
Moa Arimoto (Wakana Nakai)
Ren Suzuki (Kyoichi Furusawa)
Nao Yuasa (Jun Takenochi)
Hiromi Nagayama (Akira Oshima)
Hiromitsu Suzuki
Kenjiro Ishimaru
Hideo Sako (Kajiro Suto)
Satoshi Wada (Shatai Osuo)
Nao Eguchi
Fang Suzuki
Keiko Kubo (Mizuho Sakuragi)
Go Nagai (as himself)

Director
Takafumi Nagamine

MPAA Rating
Unrated (but would be a mild R, I think.)

Runtime
70 minutes

Tagline
Nobody knows her face... but everybody knows her body!

Language
Japanese with English Subtitles

Link(s)
Kekko Kamen at IMDB
Kekko Kamen at Wikipedia