The Sisterhood

The Sisterhood (1988)

* (out of 4)

Low-budget movie set in 2021 in a world where women have become slaves to an army of men who use them for you know what. The only the not enslaved are a gang of women known as The Sisterhood and they set out to try and destroy the male gang and set the women free.

Director Cirio H. Santiago wasn't hired to make an Oscar-winning picture. No, he was given a very limited budget and asked to create something that would appeal to action fans back in the days when VHS rentals were the most popular thing around. The film wasn't meant to be any special and in all honesty it isn't. It's a pretty bad and bland picture that really doesn't have too much going for it.

As you'd expect, the entire film looks rather cheap and we're given some rather weak performances and bland dialogue. With that said, you really could argue that those things really don't matter in a picture like this and I'd agree with that. The problem with this movie is that it's deadly dull from the start to the finish. There's really no excitement to the action scenes and the story itself just isn't very compelling.

These post-Apocalyptic films were all a rip-off of MAD MAX and at the very least you hoped for some minor entertainment. The only real entertainment comes from some of the fight scenes but that's certainly not enough to save THE SISTERHOOD.

In this goofy, female empowerment, post-holocaust tale from director Cirio H. Santiago ("Equalizer 2000"), it's the future year of 2021. In the deserts of Earth, men hold all the power and have enslaved many women. It's up to the nomadic ladies known as "The Sisterhood" to restore some sense of equality. Two such Sisters that we meet are Alee (Rebecca Holden) and Vera (Barbara Patrick, the wife of Robert P.). They take under their wing a teen aged girl named Marya (Lynn-Holly Johnson of "Ice Castles" and "For Your Eyes Only"), whose kid brother (Tom McNeeley) was killed by one of the male antagonists, a warrior named Mikal (Chuck Wagner, "America 3000").

"The Sisterhood" is good, light entertainment for sci-fi lovers who favor the cheesy and silly side of post-holocaust cinema. It does earn some points for portraying its women as strong and independent, but not invulnerable. It also gives Alee and Vera special powers - Vera is telekinetic and Alee has healing abilities. Our three heroines generate sufficient rooting interest, and all of our grunting pig villains are appropriately odious. Mikal is an exception, proving to be more than one-dimensional.

Fine use is made of locations. The sets, costumes, and vehicles look decent enough for whatever minimal budget "The Sisterhood" had. The music score by Jun Latonio is variable: sometimes it's passable, and at other times it is just *awful*. It's all pleasantly cheesy, with a little bit of gore (there's a few close ups of sword wounds) and a fair amount of action. The performances are actually not too bad - Robert Dryer, the main baddie in "Savage Streets", as the creepy Lord Barak, Anthony East as Lord Jak. The female cast is very attractive, and there are adequate doses of bare flesh throughout.

Watching this one is a harmless enough way to kill a little over an hour and a half.

Seven out of 10.

In this, yet another apocalyptic, MAD MAX ROAD WARRIOR spin-off, we find ourselves in the year 2021, when "all women are slaves and all men are their masters!" until...The Sisterhood arrives! The film features a young Anna Farris-look alike, who is allegedly a witch and has a pet hawk named Lady Shree. Orphaned along with her younger brother, they hide out in the desert from the marauding bands with the hawk as their only companion. The brother mentions a group of women fighters of lore, the Sisterhood, whom traveling bards have sung of. The sister, named Marya, dismisses such a story as old wives' tales, but not before the brother opines that his sister should seek refuge among the Sisterhood. When she points out they only accept women, he decides he will become a traveling bard too. In terms of the plot, that's all you need to know to enjoy this movie.

The plot, unlike other sword and sorcery/post-apocalyptic movies (I'm looking at you, The Sword and The Sorcerer, and She, the latter I gave 10 stars, but not because of its plot!) makes sense, but there are some silly elements. The villain, Mikal, looks like he should be the good guy, and the emblem on his chest bears a menorah. Oh, and the leader of the Sisterhood wears a crown that I kept mistaking for a porkie pie hat throughout. The cars are cool, but not anything fancier than Road Warrior. The music is dreadful, feeling like an 8-bit version of a circus. I give this a 8 for its plot, landscape, hawk-human relationship, and scenes involving girls with guns, tanks, and long bows.

The Sisterhood (1988) is a movie that I recently watched on Amazon Prime. The storyline takes place in a world trying to survive after a nuclear holocaust. Men have enslaved women to do their bidding in most civilizations. However, in the outlands women have formed a tribe of sorts that survive on their own. The only hope for women in civilizations may be for this tribe to rescue them and set them free from their oppressors.

This movie is directed by Cirio H. Santiago (Firecracker) and stars Rebecca Holden (Knight Rider), Chuck Wagner (America 3000), Lynn-Holly Johnson (For Your Eyes Only), Robert Dryer (Savage Streets) and Barbara Patrick (Lord of the Illusions).

This movie had some promise but doesn't live up to its potential. The attire, settings and props were all perfect for the storyline. This also has the classic 80s nudity you'd expect. Unfortunately the writing, especially the dialogue, was a bit stale and Wagner's acting was very mediocre and holds the film back. I did like the "goddess" depiction and introduction towards the end. The conclusion was very mediocre and a bit disappointing.

Overall, this is a below average addition to the apocalyptic genre that I would score a 4/10 but still recommend seeing once.

Cirio H. Santiago is a director who has made quite a few "girls-with-guns" (or, in this case, "girls-with-swords-and-later-guns") films; he could perhaps be described as another Andy Sidaris, but with less sleaze and an even lower budget. "The Sisterhood", a cheesy post-apocalyptic flick complete with laser beams and "talking" hawks, must not be one of his best moments: most of the action sequences are rather flat, and there is too much wandering around in the desert. But the two female leads are physically well-cast, and as for the third....let's just say that if you ever wanted to see Lynn-Holly Johnson, of "For Your Eyes Only" fame, kicking some serious butt (though it is never quite explained how her character is able to do that), this may be your only chance! (**)