Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Ladies and gentlemen – welcome to violence!
The dancers Billie, Varla, and Rosie are wild, loud, and have a refined taste in fast cars. During one of their trips into the desert they meet Tommy and Linda. The challenge to race soon turns in a fight to the death, which Tommy loses. To cover their tracks, the three amazons kidnap Linda and disappear into the desert.
Russ Meyer, Hollywood’s enfant terrible with a penchant for busty women, shows off his substantial talent in this low-budget production. With its simple means, but solid aesthetics, fabulous editing and a pitch perfect sense of provocation, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! advanced to one of the first greats of the Exploitation genre. It is also one of the first films to show strong and violent women. Women who take whatever they want, using means that had till then been reserved for men.
Death Race 2000
Rolling, roaring, 2000 PS strong latex-machetes of death
In a not too far removed future, the year 2000, all nations are obsolete. Instead, the world is ruled by a single totalitarian state. The population is kept docile with “bread and circus”. Every year, lethal races are held in which the various provinces compete (Hunger Games copied a good part of its plot from here!). For the amusement of the general populace riveted to their television sets, the drivers are incentivized through special perks to kill as artfully as possible any unfortunate passers-by — often with a machete attached to the grille. And right in the middle of it all the great favorite: Frankenstein, a mysterious driver clad in black latex. Yet it appears that the government’s man is playing a double game…
Although the social critique typical for a dystopian plot is there, it is entirely eclipsed by cartoonish slapstick, eccentric humor, a latex-fetish, and last but not least Sly Stallones acting. Death Race 2000 is a bizarre, funny, irreplaceable jewel of Nonsense-Exploitation. Not recommended for fans of serious Science-Fiction, but great fun for everybody else!
Alexander Streb
Translated by Michael Schmutzer
