Teenage Catgirls in Heat

TEENAGE CATGIRLS IN HEAT (2+ outta 5 stars) Extremely silly movie... another ultra-low-budget Troma movie... which means a lot of cheap special effects, stupid jokes, gratuitous nudity and bad acting. In spite of all that... I kinda enjoyed this one. A magical cat idol transform ordinary house-cats into nubile young women in a bid to take over the world (or something like that). A cat hunter and a young drifter team up to try and stop them... but the drifter complicates matters when he falls in love with one of the "catgirls". Some of the actresses do a great job of playing cats in human bodies... speaking in a weird, mewling voice... playing with yarn... coughing up fur balls... Carrie Vanston as Cleo does an especially good job. Other than a few funny acting bits, though... there isn't much to see here. The story is stupid, the dialogue is poor and the directing is mediocre at best. Not enough sex for the softcore audience... and too much nudity for this to be a family movie (thought there were times it reminded of some of those lame Disney movies from the early '60s where people turned into dogs and things).

Okay, this is indeed a bad movie. But the people making it knew all along it was a bad movie. In a way that's the point. I mean, anyone who takes one glance at the title should know what's coming, even if they have never heard of Troma. They were trying to make it campy. But they failed. And there's really nothing much worse than aiming for camp and missing. The sets were cheap, the plot was hokey, the cinematography was horrible, the acting was bad, the make-up was awful, the story was full of holes, some of the props were unbelievably bad, the direction was uninspired, the humor wasn't funny, the horror wasn't scary, and, well, need I go on? Some of the girls were pretty, but that was spoiled by playing their roles. Avoid.

When it comes to trashy films no one makes them like Troma, and, while this is hardly a masterpiece, Teenage Catgirls in Heat has all the ingredients of good entertainment.

Come now, do we expect anything more than cheesy special effects from the Troma team? Do we expect erudite dialogue and interwoven subplots? Of course not. What you get when you insert the cassette is exactly what you would expect. Lots of naked girls, a simple plot with simple-minded characters, and humor that is often wickedly satirical. Take for instance when catgirl Carrie Vanston is asked her name and she replies as if she is being called to dinner, "C-L-E-E-E-E-E-O-H-H! C-L-E-E-E-E-E-O-H-H!" or when she hesitantly touches the truck seat before entering the vehicle. In fact my only criticism is that there wasn't enough of Miss Vanston.

Teenage Catgirls in Heat may not be on a par with one of our Northwest Microbrews, but it is curiously refreshing and entertaining.

"Teenage Catgirls In Heat" is a very average Troma release. Like alot of their other films, it is a hit & miss film with many inconsistencies and just isn't able to hold the viewer's interest for the most part.

The plot is bizarre as usual, and had much potential. It is about an ancient statue of a cat taken out of its box in suburbia, making all the local cats commit mass suicide and then mutate into naked teenage girls who miow, lick, scratch, hiss and purr, with a mission to seduce and kill men. Meanwhile, a cat hunter and his sidekick stumble across them and want to find out what's going on.

The film has its moments, and some very funny scenes. In particular, the date between one of the cat hunters and one of the catgirls. But overall, the comedy is very inconsistent and gets tiresome. Worth checking out if you are a Troma fan, but otherwise there isn't much you'd get out of this.

This movie begins with promise. The cinematography is fresh and interesting, and initially the plot seems good. It quickly becomes much too campy with some of the characters overacting to the 5th power. Grace Smith helped write and produce this film, but it is not even close to the quality of her other film of note, "Hope's Happy Birthday." Parting ways with Scott Perry was a good thing for her artistically. As the movie trudged on, some of the "special effects" truly took their toll on the film. The "night" scenes were obviously filmed in the middle of the day using a "night" filter on the camera lens. Bad effect. If you like "campy" films, see this one (once) to add it to your list, but I wouldn't try too hard to find it.