Run! Bitch Run!

I watched Run! Bitch Run! last night and i found it to be one of the best exploitation horror film i have ever seen. It is about two innocent teenage catholic schoolgirls, who are trying to sell religious books from door to door to try and pay for there education. But things start to go very wrong when they arrive in a certain neighbourhood and happen to knock on the wrong door. The two schoolgirls are confronted by en evil woman called Marth and a psychotic man called Clint. One of the girls Rebecca is raped and is left for dead. But the other girl Catherine happens to awake, and she wants revenge. I found this to be a disturbing film at times, because of the sexual violence in it. and some of the sex sences were also disturbing. It reminded me of some of the horror films from the 1970's such as I Spit On Your Grave, and The Last House On The Left i would recommend this film to people who enjoy exploitation films. 7/10

Let me first tell you that i love exploitation movies and over the past 10 years some directors have tried to capture the spirit of the nasty exploitation movies of the 70's, the one that captured that spirit was Rob Zombie's "The Devils Rejects" it was well directed, edited, and at least the actors gave a damn about there performance, now a lot of Grindhouse movies in the 70's was badly acted but thats no excuse now, the big problem with Run Bitch Run is the student like direction there is no flair with the direction, it's just plain flat and the editing is very bad, don't get me wrong i really wanted to love this movie (the trailer looked fun) but it was bad, and not even in a good way.. I know there were working in a very low budget but it looks like the film-makers did not even try, it was just lazy work..

Now the story is pretty much the same as I Spit On Your Grave, just a standard rape and revenge that you have seen many times, but what really sucked about the movie was the violence, it was not brutal or disturbing enough, now let me tell you, forget about some of the good reviews that this movie has been getting, it's all lies lies lies, what you really want to see is some hard hitting bloody violence some sleazy sex and this does not deliver..The only good thing about the film is the nudity...Trust me, the trailer is much much better than the whole movie...in other words avoid...

I am a huge fan of horror and exploitation, and low budget b-movies have never been something to scare me off. Rape/Revenge is my favourite subgenre (probably because seeing the brutal revenge is almost cathartic to me, a fantasy I'll never actually enact). So when I heard Run! Bitch Run! was a modern throwback to the 70's grindhouse trash, I immediately knew I had to see this film.

The story is pretty much what you'd expect: two Catholic school girls are going door-to-door selling bibles. They knock on the wrong door and witness a pimp killing one of his girls. They become captive to the pimp and two others. After one girl dies and the other is left for dead, the surviving girl sets out for revenge.

The script, while basic, could have worked with better acting and a soundtrack that didn't sound like it was from a horrible porno. If you're watching for tits, they're on display quite frequently, but you'd be better served picking up a Playboy. Our heroine, Catherine, has a pretty nice pair and once she's naked after the rape (and later wearing a nurses' uniform), she becomes acceptably pleasant to the eye.

I cannot stress enough how poor the acting was, though. What a relief that Catherine doesn't speak throughout the entire second act. One star was added to this review for the way she gets her revenge on Lobo (the pimp). The knifing is the sole reason to watch this film. Try it with the mute on.

OK, I understand that this is supposed to be a throwback to the Golden Age of Grindhouse Sleaze, but it follows the recipe a little too well for my tastes. Lots of needless exposition between the few action scenes means that you lose attention (and sympathy) pretty quickly.

And like the grindhouse flicks, there's quite a bit of 'cheating' in the film. The camera always cuts away from the money shots, so you get plenty of shots of someone sticking a gun in someone else's face and then getting blood spattered on them in a reverse shot. It reminds me of something you'd see in "Sorority House Massacre."

And as far as nudity or sex, there's not really that much.

Overall, the discomfort this film might generate is pretty weak. Go see a true exploitation film, like "Hanger," if you want to see this sort of thing done to the extreme.

Some Spoilers may follow

Catherine and Rebecca are two Catholic schoolgirls, whose day takes a severe turn for the worst when they knock into the wrong home while selling bibles door to door. Running afoul of depraved pimp Lobo and his equally vicious gang, Catherine and Rebecca are defiled and Catherine is left to die. Catherine vows revenge, and resolves to make the scumbags pay for their deeds....

Run Bitch Run from the trailer looks almost like a Black Dynamite style parody of exploitation flicks, yet the film itself is actually a heartfelt homage to the genre. It's not nearly as tongue in cheek as one would think from viewing the trailer, and has some dead straight nasty scenes, including one iconic scene that will do for guys in the 00's what I Spit On Your Grave did for guys back in the '70s.

Although it suffers from a rather meandering middle and randomness,(Possibly due to budgetary constraints) it's overall a solid and entertaining enough homage to grind house trash cinema, and director Joseph Guzman is obviously an exploitation fan as he has a great eye and the film has a pretty kick ass feel for the era.

Overall, it's flawed in parts, and its biggest flaw is that it's actually rather restrained violence-wise, but it's still an enjoyable contemporary exploitation flick, and worth checking out overall for fans of the genre.

It's got a cool score and all so overall, grindhouse fans could do worse.