Dead Girls

My review was written in August 1990 after watching the movie on Raedon video cassette.

Maximum number of plot twists highlight the whodunit "Dead Girls", a topical film dealing with the influence of a rock group's morbid lyrics on its fans.

Diana Karanikas and Angela Eads headline the title rock group, whose music exploits suicide and death. Karanikas' sister Ilene B. Singer barely survives when she and her fellow teens execute a suicide pact induced by sis' lyrics.

While hanging out in a remote cabin with Singer along to recuperate, the group members become victims one by one of a maniacal killer. Steve Jarvis' script does a good job of pointing suspicion at virtually everyone in tghe cast until hard-to-guess final reel plot twists solve the mystery.

Extremely gory scenes will limit the audience for this picture, which also overstays its welcome by about a reel. Acting is okay but, despite the premise, we neve see the group perform a number.

This film is a blast! DEAD GIRLS falls into the now-defunct category of "heavy metal horror," a small subgenre that mixed 80s rock mentality, big hair and leather pants with either a slasher or satanism horror plot. Other films in this field include ROCKTOBER BLOOD (1984), TRICK OR TREATS (1986), SLAUGHTERHOUSE ROCK (1987) and SHOCK 'EM DEAD (1990), but DEAD GIRLS has them all beat. Despite a loopy plot and low-budget limitations, director Dennis Devine pulls out the stops to make sure this is an entertaining film.

The Plot: Gina, lead singer of the all-female rock band The Dead Girls, has ESP abilities and foresees the future. In the opening dream, Gina's sister Brooke ("Life's a dog! A total bummer!") and her friends commit group suicide, slashing their wrists with razors. Brooke ends up surviving, so Gina and the band travel back to her hometown, where everyone finds their morbid lyrics to be responsible for the teenage suicide deaths. The band decides they need a vacation so Brooke can recooperate and they can avoid bad publicity, so off they go (with tour manger Jeff and a nurse) to a secluded lakeside cabin. A black-gloved psycho in a trench coat and skull-face mask shows up and starts to kill everyone off. The murderer kills according to the band lyrics, leaving behind such titles as "Nail Gun Murders" and "Drown Your Sorrows" at the scene of each murder.

Points are deducted from the film for its fully clichéd plot, and it is, like I said, a late bloomer in both the slasher genre and the heavy metal film genre, but it's still a very fun flick...featuring fine acting from a likable cast, good gore effects and a well-written script with several interesting plot twists. Some may think the end goes a TAD bit overboard, but it's unpredictable and original. And despite what the other poster said, this was not shot on video. The film looks fine.

A fresh, hot new death metal band called Dead Girls is ripping through the charts and perhaps due to their depressing subject matter and lyrics leave teenage suicides in their wake. One band member Gina (Diana Karanikas) is having horrible dreams and visions which along with the suicides lead the band to take a two week hiatus to get their heads back in gear. So, off to the cabin in the woods to get killed off one by one.

It really is a bad horror film that makes a late entry into the slasher genre that includes spotty acting and nothing really new. A sad point as well is not only do you not see the band perform, individually they never even play a musical instrument during the entire movie. For me the viewer that does strain on the belief that these five band members are in a band together. Not to mention they also seem to be at each other's throats during the movie. May not have lasted long anyways if they weren't killed off. Also steals from a much better FRIDAY THE 13TH as we are left with young people alone without anyway of communicating with the outside world and we do not know who the killer is. Problem is I guessed the killer before they even got to the cabin. I also thought the ending was pretty stupid.

"Dead Girls" focuses on a predominately female death metal/glam band in Los Angeles, whose obscene stage acts and graphic lyrics have led to teenage fans engaging in mass suicide pacts, among them one of the members' impressionable younger sister. The group take a vacation into the mountains with the young sister in tow. Of course, bodies pile up.

This 1990 effort from Dennis Devine is a cheapjack shot-on-video production that, at times, rises above its working parts. The concept is straightforward slasher material, but what sets it apart is the death rock girl band (there is actually one male member) being at the center of the story (think Hole in an alternate late '80s death rock universe--or, perhaps, the Go-Go's as goths). We get the impression that the group are in fact more performance artists than they are musicians, drawing attention for their gruesome on-stage stunts more than for their actual music, which allows for a playful element of "is it or isn't it real?" when the slashing starts.

There are many clunky elements here, such as a subplot involving one of the girls' conservative family background, and the dialogue is at times quite silly. However, once the characters settle into their mountain vacation, the film takes a "Friday the 13th" sequel-esqje turn; and when you think it can't turn, it turns again. And again. The shifty plot twists here are actually at times surprising, and, despite the film having an overall playful tone, it comes crashing down at the end with a mean-spirited conclusion that caught me by surprise. Underpinning it all is the notable theme of the girls' art being used against them as a form of punishment, which, while not necessarily profound, is unique in a genre like this.

While "Dead Girls" is a technically lackluster effort, it never ceases to entertain. Despite some tepid performances, hokey special effects, and the fact that it runs a bit long in the tooth, it is no less a twisty and relentlessly amusing viewing experience. Worth a watch for late '80s slasher fans. 7/10.

Notoriously trashy shock rockers Dead Girls grimly discover that their 2-week vacation in an isolated backwoods cabin proves to be more permanent than they intended! Dennis Devine's engagingly goofy, twist-laden slasher's modest budget belies a groovy generosity of playful red herrings, some gnarly kills, plentiful cheesy banter, and an amusingly kooky climax! No classic, but this eventful, schlocktastic slasher's current obscurity is wholly undeserved. With a serviceably Agatha Crispy plot, lusty performances from a game cast that range from professional to deliciously Ed Wooden, there's nary a dull moment in this hysteria harbingering B-Horror bloodbath! I sincerely hope that these bodaciously bad 'Dead Girls' deservedly get resurrected on Blu-ray, as this is one hard rockin', heroically hokey, speaker shredding indie horror hit!