Coeur d'acier

Every once and a while, unfortunately not very often, you encounter a film for which you had low or even zero expectations, but then it turns out to be surprisingly enjoyable! I used to always refer to "Scream for Help" as an example for this, but it looks as if I can now also refer to "Steel and Lace" as an example as well! Being a low-budgeted and early 90s Sci-Fi/cyborg rip-off starring a couple of washed up B- movie stars, I just started watching "Steel and Lace" with all my brain functions switched off, but it didn't even take 10 minutes before I sat there with a big and sleazy smile on my face! The very simple but ingenious premise can be described as a hybrid between cyborg flicks like "The Terminator" or "Robocop" and rape & revenge horrors like "I Spit on your Grave". The beautiful and talented Gaily Morton was the victim a gang-rape, but during the trial in court, the nasty culprit Daniel Emerson and his buddies are set free due a lack of evidence. The poor girl can't handle the acquittal and commits suicide by throwing herself from a rooftop. Five years later, Gaily's scientist brother Albert recovered her body and turned her into a hi-tech cyborg with as sole mission to eliminate her assailants one by one. The murders in "Steel and Lace" are downright fantastic! Disguised as femme fatale, she lures them to sleazy hotels or empty meeting rooms and subsequently disembowels, decapitates or viciously castrates them! Enter David Naughton ("An American Werewolf in London") and the ravishing Stacy Haiduk as respectively a police inspector and a freelance reporter; both investigating the murder series and both suspecting a connection with the infamous trial. Particularly the first half of "Steel and Lace" is a lot of fun, with even a handful of hilarious lines as well. Upon discovering the first corpse, who got killed by a drilling device coming out of the cyborg's stomach, Detective Dunn makes the intelligent remark: "It looks like someone dropped a bowling ball right through him". The police doctor's reaction is even better, as he lifts the sheet that is covering the body, looks as him and stoically says: "This man has a hole in him…" The make-up effects are very good, which shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, since director Ernest Farino previously worked in the visual effects department of such classics like "The Terminator", "The Abyss", "The Thing" and "Dreamscape". The second half is less entertaining, since it primarily focuses on Haiduk's private investigation and Gaily's human conscience that slowly develops itself again, but by then "Steel and Lace" already turned into a guilty pleasure for sure.

Out of the all too numerous and all too familiar rape revenge films, "Steel and Lace" emerges as different and clever. This is no "Ms 45", but is definitely better than a lot of lesser exploitation movies. The acting is pretty good, with David Naughton and Bruce Davison best. The story is more than just blood letting, with the rape victim brought back as a cyborg and methodically terminating her tormentors. Her kill methods are somewhat creative, my favorite being decapitation by helicopter blade. Even though this was never intended as anything more than splatter, it has some welcome dark humor in the mix. "Steel and Lace" is a keeper. - MERK

Stars Bruce Davison (X-men), David Naughton (An American Werewolf In London), and Claire Wren as the rape victim/suicide turned killer cyborg. The story is rather unsettling, especially the way it careens back and forth between the dark revenge scenes, over to some fascinating comic bits (such as the forensic scientist who starts to enjoy the creativity of the murders), to dealing with Davison's character, who seems more like a robot than the robot. Perhaps it is unsettling because juxtapositions like that are so often a hallmark of real life as it is lived. The viewer really is kept in suspense about how the next victim will be claimed, and I defy anyone to guess all the deaths correctly beforehand. The dialogue verges on self-parody at times, and elements of several other flicks from Blade Runner to Robocop are borrowed with little attempt at disguise. Yet it all hangs together somehow, perhaps it is the thread of bad romance. A quirky gem.

I first saw this movie in 1991...pretty much the same time it was released to video store. It was a little too violent for me back then and made me a bit uncomfortable (I was just a kid). I just watched it again (I bought the tape through Amazon)...and I have to admit that it has stood up pretty well. It is a rather dark story but it has some rather interesting and creative kill scenes. Also watch for the forensic detective...he has some pretty funny comments about the murders. It is a pretty original movie...definitely B grade but worth a look.

7/10

A bizarre mix of I spit on Your Grave, crossed with 80s splatter horror films, Terminator-esquire cyborg flicks and journalistic detective stories.

The horror element is made up of the gory deaths the rapists suffer. The deaths are some sick stuff - yet MGM showed it with a 16 rating! There is no way this was made in 1991. I guess this sat on the shelf for at least 5 years. This is pure early to mid 80s. All grey-flecked suits, rolled up sleeves, wide shoulder pads, permed mullets, grey marble, clashing pastels, and bright neon tube lighting. This was made in the 80s and sat on the shelf gathering dust, and no surprise.

There's the occasional laughable B movie dialogue which lifts the film, but the overall grimness of the film makes it hard to watch and stomach.