Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987)

... aka: Esclavas del espacio (Slaves of Space)

... aka: Esclaves du futur (Slaves of the Future)

... aka: Jäger der verschollenen Galaxie (Hunter of the Lost Galaxy)

... aka: Les captives de l'espace (Space Captives)

... aka: Mujeres Encadenadas (Chained Women)

... aka: Otrokyne z konce vesmíru (A Slave from the End of the Universe)

... aka: Rebelião nas Galáxias (Rebel of the Galaxies)

... aka: Slave Girls

Directed by:

Ken Dixon

Aboard a prison spaceship, a pair of bikini-clad captives; the soft and curvaceous Daria (Elizabeth "Cayton" / Kaitan) and the athletic and toned Tisa (Cindy Beal), break their chains, escape their cell, conk a few dumb guards over the head with a metal pipe, steal a spaceship and then crash land in the ocean on an unknown, though human-friendly, planet. Well, human-friendly when it comes to the atmosphere, at least! Daria crawls out of the water onto a tropical island, makes her way through the jungle and ends up at a castle fortress filled with very peculiar things. For starters, the main room of the fortress is filled with weapons and all manner of dead, stuffed animals, plus nearly all of the windows have been barred. Second, the crazy-eyed, black-clad castle owner, Zed (Don Scribner), is shady and sinister from the second he first introduces himself and spends his days sleeping and his nights hunting. Third, Zed has two android assistants who've been programmed not to divulge too much information to strangers and one of them is tasked with keeping guard over his secretive "trophy room." Finally, two other "guests;" Shela (Brinke Stevens) and her brother Rik (Carl Horner), are also present and ended up stranded there under similar, mysterious circumstances. In both cases, it appears their spaceships were intentionally drawn there by gravitational pull. On the more positive side, Daria's sister in crime shows up there unharmed, so at least there's that.

Our plucky heroine soon learns that there were four guests there only a week earlier, but two have since mysteriously disappeared without a trace. No explanation is provided by their host as to where they went. However, each had been invited into the trophy room prior to vanishing. Rik confesses to Daria that he believes they're all being kept prisoner there. For what reason, he doesn't quite know. However, the excuse Zed uses for why he can't take any of the stranded travelers off the planet - his own spaceship needs repairs - doesn't quite fly since his androids sneak out to make supply runs with it.

As it turns out, Zed isn't just interested in hunting wild animals, but also humans. After killing his victims, he decapitates them to add another "trophy" to his collection and is also a sexual sadist who likes chaining naked girls up, knocking them out and then raping them. During one memorable shot, Stevens is seen lying unconscious and naked on a slab while a shirtless Zed smokes a post-rape ciggie and one of his robots gives him a back massage! Afterward, Stevens' character is used to force the brother into another hunting "game." It doesn't end well for Rik when he becomes ensnared in a giant spiderweb and is shot to death. Wanting more of a challenge, Zed then decides to release all three women into the woods simultaneously, giving them only hunting knives and a one-hour head start. He then goes after them with his crossbow.

Not a bad idea at all here, an updating of Richard Connell's classic 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game (most famously adapted for the screen way back in 1932), given a sci-fi twist and home video exploitation elements. This is also the kind of competently-crafted B-movie that's all but extinct nowadays. You know, actually shot on film (35mm even) with real production design, hand-crafted John Carl Buechler monsters (they throw in robots, mutants, green-blooded zombies AND an impressive Predator-like "Phantazoid Warrior") and whatever optical and visual effects they could squeeze in for the meager budget (in this case, 90,000 bucks). I'd say about every penny of that ended up on the screen. Crucial elements for this type of film (energy, swift pacing, atmosphere, spirited acting, nice colors...) are all here, as well as some humor (my favorite bit being the bickering robots), minor gore, sometimes hilariously pseudo-philosophical dialogue and plenty of skin from the three lovely female stars, though done with some restraint and as an accompaniment to the story, not the entire reason for the film's existence.

Leading lady Kaitan was always considered a second tier Scream Queen during the 80s and 90s and spent most of her time fighting a losing battle competing for bubbly blonde B-movie roles against the reigning queen of such parts: Linnea Quigley. Though Kaitan's career had some promising blips of life during the 80s, it eventually devolved to the point where she appeared to just be getting Linnea's leftovers; evidenced by the fact she was first in line to replace Quigley when she bailed out early from the Vice Academy comedy series. I'm not saying this to denigrate Kaitan in any way as I quite like her as an actress. She was gorgeous, came off as very pleasant on-screen and had fair acting chops. Just like Quigley (here's that comparison again!) she was underrated for her comedic talents, which can be seen in all their glory in Assault of the Killer Bimbos (1988) and several other films. I'm only pointing out that the lane she was traveling in during much of her heyday was already very much occupied, which probably explains why she didn't have quite the staying power of Quigley. Her co-star here, Stevens, has also had a more enduring career, though I don't find her darkly alluring qualities at all comparable to the much more sprightly Kaitan and Quigley. Nonetheless, the three of them always get grouped together.

I must also admit that I was taken aback seeing what became of Kaitan (now going by her married name Elizabeth Ruiz) after she finally threw in the towel on her acting career in the mid-90s. I know one can't expect an actor to be anything like their roles in real life, but her working as a personal assistant for truly nasty hatemonger David Horowitz, author of such books as Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes and BLITZ: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win (published just a few months before he lost the election by over 7 million votes) did genuinely surprise me. But, as this film poetically reminds us, "Fate certainly weaves a curious tapestry."

Slave Girls received another sort of notoriety in its day when the late Jesse Helms, former North Carolina Senator / Moral Majority co-founder, whose beliefs were pretty aligned with where Horowitz is today, actually brought this movie up on the Senate floor as an example of an "indecent" film that should be banned from TV as part of a failed Cable Act amendment he was pushing. That piece of moronic legislation finally had the final nail put through it by the Supreme Court in 1996. After this brief setback, Helms went back to fighting for other worthwhile Christian causes like defunding AIDS research and eliminating free school lunches for impoverished children.

Fully financed and pre-sold around the world on the basis of its title alone, this was a video store and late night cable (including frequent airings on USA Up All Night) staple here in America and much of the rest of the world for many years. It's also one of the most profitable films from the entire Charles Band universe and has been released on VHS (Urban Classics) and DVD (Cult Video, Koch Vision) numerous times, plus received a Blu-ray release in 2019 courtesy of Full Moon. With all that in mind, it's a surprise that director Ken Dixon did not make any other films after this. Prior, he was tasked with putting together a bunch of film clip compilation shelf fillers for Band, including The Best of Sex and Violence (1982), hosted by John Carradine, Famous T&A (1982), hosted by Sybil Danning, Filmgore (1983), hosted by Elvira, and ZOMBIETHON (1986), which had fun new zombie scenes shot to link together the archive footage. Slave Girls certainly showed enough promise to merit additional work for Band but it never occurred.

Clips from this were later repurposed into the utterly useless T&A compilation Bimbo Movie Bash (1997), which was released on VHS and DVD and as a CD-ROM "game" by Full Moon. Nearly 30 years later, Brinke got to duplicate her death scene for Band's surprisingly fun Trophy Heads (2004), which seems to have otherwise taken quite a bit of inspiration from this.

★★1/2

Nightmare Sisters (1988)

... aka: Ölüm Melekleri (Angels of Death)

... aka: Sorority Sisters

... aka: Sorority Succubus Sisters

Directed by:

Dave (David) DeCoteau

Because he had so much fun making his previous horror-comedy, SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-O-RAMA (1988), and had leftover 35mm short ends from that shoot, DeCoteau decided to make a companion film starring the same three main actresses. Only this time the budget was significantly lower and the shooting schedule was significantly shorter (just 4 days), resulting in lots of long, static camera setups, minimal plot, minimal special effects and most of the action having to be shot in a small house. Thankfully none of that really diminishes the fun factor here thanks almost entirely to its three entertaining stars: Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer (billed here as "Michelle McClellan") and Brinke Stevens. These three actresses would reign as the Top 3 "Scream Queens" of direct-to-video horror in the 80s well into the 90s until the term "Scream Queen" was co-opted by every low budget horror actress and then used by the press to describe more mainstream actresses like Jennifer Love Hewitt who appeared in just one or two high profile horror films, and basically lost all of its meaning. Still, Quigley, Bauer and Stevens managed to carve out a special place in genre history before that happened.

On a related / interesting note, nowadays there are mixed feelings about usage of "Scream Queen" as a descriptor. Some view it is limiting, reductive, insulting, antiquated and / or even a bit misogynistic and sexist. This is all highlighted in an article penned by frequent horror actress Barbara Crampton a few years back called Don't Call Me a Scream Queen. After reading Crampton's article and the various views from industry people on this subject, I decided I'll still be using the term here. To me, this label only applies to a small number of actresses anyway, and only those who have earned such a title due to a sizable genre filmography. I use it with affection and it certainly doesn't mean that I think these actresses are only capable of screaming and playing victims. I know better. Most genre fans also know better. I just don't really see the point in having to type out "Actress Who Does a Lot of Horror Films But Can Also Do Other Genres!" each time I address a prolific female genre presence.

And none of that changes the fact that Quigley, Bauer and Stevens really ARE Scream Queens by the very definition of what a Scream Queen was back in the direct-to-video era. Combined, they've starred in hundreds of genre films over the years. During the 80s and 90s, they attended genre conventions as Scream Queens, did talk shows as Scream Queens, appeared in Scream Queens Illustrated and other genre magazines countless times and actively promoted themselves everywhere as Scream Queens. All three proudly wore that label then and still wear it today. No need to retroactively change course and refer to them as something else at this point in time. However, out of respect for other actresses like Crampton, who doesn't like that term applied to herself, I'll make sure to refrain from calling her that in the future. During the time frame we cover here, she wouldn't really qualify for it, anyway. Now back to the movie...

During the overlong opening sequence, wealthy Southern housewife Amanda Detweiler (Sandy Brooke) shows up at phony psychic Omar's ("Dukey Flyswatter" / Michael D. Sonye) to get to the bottom of why her husband vanished. Instead, demon hands emerge from his crystal ball and rip his head off. Some time later, we're on a college campus where nerdy college girl / hoarder Marci Feinberg (Brinke) has just returned to her sorority house from a flea market with a car full of junk, er I mean, antiques. She joins fellow sisters Melody Hoffmeier (Linnea), a buck-toothed wanna-be singer, and Mickey (Michelle), a compulsive over-eater dubbed "Thunder Thighs Johnson" by the men on campus for obvious reasons, on the couch to sort through things. Among Marci's acquisitions are pickle salt and pepper shakers, a coconut monkey head and a crystal ball... the late Omar's crystal ball to be exact.

Seeing how the rest of their sisters are away for the entire weekend, the girls decide to do something special: Throw a party. Only problem is, they're all unpopular and deemed undesirable by the guys on campus. However, Melody did go on an awkward date with shy fellow nerd Kevin (Richard Gabai) a month earlier. She calls him up, invites him to the party and insists he bring along a couple of his friends; Freddy (Marcus Vaughter) and Duane (William Dristas). Unfortunately for the guys, their frat brother superiors Phil (Timothy Kauffman), J.J. (Matthew Phelps) and Bud (C.J. Cox) find out and "ground" them; forbidding them to their leave their room for the weekend in an attempt to crash the party themselves. Kevin, Freddy and Duane sneak out of the window and go anyway.

At the party, Melody warbles "Row Row Row Your Boat" at the piano, Marci bores Duane to sleep with her photo album and Mickey pigs out on chips listening to Freddy's sad sack life story. Things are livened up a bit with a game of Twister in the backyard and livened up even more with a séance in the kitchen. There, they summon up Omar who tricks the girls into touching his crystal ball. They're shocked by lasers and transformed into topless demonic seductresses (a cave girl, a rocker chick and a sweet and innocent lollipop-sucking little girl [!]) who reduce victims to smoke via oral sex. Phil and frat bros spy on them, break in and attempt to cock block the action, paying for it with their lives. Eventually an exorcist, Lanchester Perrin ("Jeffrey Culver" / James R. Sweeney), is called in to try to save the ladies.

Considering the ultra low budget and insanely short filming schedule, this is smoother and less clunky than one might imagine. It's also enjoyably upbeat and lighthearted. Still, the plot and overall production is minimal, the camerawork isn't good, the jokes and one-liners in Kenneth J. Hall's script run the gamut from terrible to very funny and the acting from the male cast members is highly variable. The three leading ladies, however, are all excellent and manage to make the movie all by themselves. This is a perfect demonstration of why they became as popular as they did back then. In fact, it's a much better showcase for all three than its companion film Sorority Babes, which centered more around Quigley's biker chick character. Here the playing field is evened and all three are given a chance to shine.

While Quigley, Bauer and Stevens' looks and willingness to do nudity did play a part in their popularity, it's always overstated and doesn't really explain why these three in particular were the ones who became the stars out of the literally thousands of women who did nude scenes in 80s horror flicks. It obviously wasn't just the nudity itself that separated them from the pack, but that nudity included in a package that also contained talent, self-awareness, a sense of humor and on-screen charisma. The opening half gives them the opportunity to character act and play against type, and they're likable, funny and utterly charming as geeks (plus effortlessly glide through extremely long unbroken takes), while the second half has them in their expected seductive vixen personas and they're equally good there. Of course there's also an abundance of nudity, including one of the longest bathtub scenes in film history, but that's what drove the market back in the day. I remember hearing one of them, I believe Stevens, refer to nudity as an "occupational hazard" in an interview.

All three of the stars did their own makeup and costumes plus get to deliver some amusing inside jokes poking fun at themselves, like Quigley and Bauer sneaking in references to their roles in THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985) and The Tomb (1986) and Stevens discussing marine biology (her chosen field prior to acting). The final scene is filled with obvious nods to The Exorcist while a poster for DeCoteau's earlier film CREEPOZOIDS (1987) is seen on a wall. The soundtrack includes songs (including the memorable "Sorority Sister Succubus" theme song) by Sonye's band Haunted Garage, as well as "Santa Monica Blvd. Boy" by Linnea's band The Skirts, which she also performs in the film and is also great.

Nightmare Sisters received a limited theatrical and then VHS release from TransWorld Entertainment in 1988. It was first issued on DVD by Retromedia in 2003 and then was bundled on several Scream Queen sets distributed by Rapid Heart Entertainment and 88 Films. The Blu-ray debut came in 2016 courtesy of Vinegar Syndrome. In the early 90s, the actresses filmed brand new scenes to replace all of their nude ones so this could play on the USA Network's Up All Night program. These new bits include the girls in lingerie in the kitchen, bouncing on the bed with balloons and Linnea re-filming her entire musical number. This rare alternate TV cut is included on Vinegar Syndrome's release.

★★1/2