THE BEST OF 80’s SCREAM QUEENS
NIGHTMARE SISTERS (1988)
DEADLY EMBRACE (1989)
MURDER WEAPON (1989)
Synopsis: It was the eighties, man…
And let’s make no mistake about it: when people think of VHS-era SCREAM QUEENS three names come to mind: Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer and Brinke Stevens - the threesome of fear that sliced and seduced a generation of gore-hounds and whose greatest hits can finally be seen in HD from the schlock-lovers at 88 Films! For those unaware (and, really, we need to have some words) Quigley was the Playboy magazine pin-up turned icon of lung-power in such plasma spilling icons as SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984) and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985). Stevens, meanwhile, would also drop her dress for Playboy but really stood out thanks to meeting the dangerous end of a drill in SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982) prior to headlining such trashy terror totems as SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-A-RAMA (1988) and BAD GIRLS FROM MARS (1990). Finally, by far the most taboo-breaking of them all, Michelle Bauer began her celluloid stint as an XXX-rated raven-haired seductress in the hardcore cult classic CAFÉ FLESH (1982) before going legit with the likes of low budget wonders HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS (1988) and DR. ALIEN (1989).
NIGHTMARE SISTERS (1988)
Label: 88 Films
Region Code: B
Duration: 82 Minutes
Rating: Cert.18
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio Format: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: David DeCoteau
Cast: Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer, Brinke Stevens, Timothy Kauffman, Matthew Phelps, C. Jay Cox, Richard Gabai, Dukey Flyswatter
The first film on this set and the real gem of this DeCoteau directed threesome of 80s scream queen mayhem would have to be Nightmare Sisters (1988) starring Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead) , Michelle Bauer (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers), and Brinke Stevens (Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama), a horror-comedy cut-up featuring a trio of awkward sorority girl nerds who become possessed by a demonic force and are transformed in horny succubi after dabbling in the dark arts with a cursed crystal ball!
The film opens with a fun prologue featuring Dukie Flyswatter of horror punkers Haunted Garage as a skeezy mystic named Omar, literally losing his head while consulting with the demonic spirit from beyond the grave. Flash forward and that same crystal ball ends up in the possession of nerdy sorority girl Marci (Stevens), who suggests to her Tri Eta Pi sorority sisters, the bucktoothed Melody (Quigly) and chunky Mickey (Bauer), that they should invite a trio of frat guys over for some party game, including a seance with the crystal ball fun. Before you can say topless s cream queens they are transformed into horny, demonic vixens, dead set on sexually satisfying the frat guys, before murdering them, leaving the guys on the run for their lives, resorting to looking up an exorcist in the yellow pages.
The film is as silly and wonderful as it sounds with all three scream queens losing portions of their clothing for large swaths of the film. We get all three ladies in a bath together sudsing each other's breasts, and Quigley putting on a punk rock cabaret of sorts.
It starts off a bit slow with some talky set-up but once this sucker gets rolling the cheap horror-comedy elements and gratuitous nudity really come together and it never lets up. The three ladies of cheap 80's horror really pull off the comedy aspects of the film, they're having fun and I'm having fun watching it, plus the low-budget film looks surprisingly great with some fun colored gel lighting and rubber-faced demons, love it.
DEADLY EMBRACE (1989)
Label: 88 Films
Region Code: B
Duration: 84 Minutes
Rating: Cert.18
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio Format: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: David DeCoteau
Cast: Jan-Michael Vincent, Ken Abraham, Mindi Miller, Jack Carter, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer
In the sultry pot boiler Deadly Embrace (1989) we have scuzzball businessman Stewart Moreland (Jan Michael Vincent, TVs Airwolf),
having an affair with his sex-pot secretary. Having grown tired of his wife Charlotte (Mindi Miller, Body Double) he wants out of the marriage, but doesn't want to pay out the nose for the divorce settlement. To that end he hires beefcake Chris (Ken Abraham, Creepozoids) as a live-in handyman doing work around their home, giving the kid some extra cash to seduce his wife, thereby giving him a get out jail free card.
The seducing part is not hard as the wife already has eyes for the stud but things get tangled when Chris's girlfriend Michelle (Linnea Quigley, Silent Night Deadly Night) comes to spend the weekend with him, she notices the attraction between her man and his employer's wife and it drives her off the deep end.
As a kid I loved the 80s TV show Airwolf starring Jan Michael Vincent, so seeing him in this sort of sleazy stuff was a blast, he plays a scumbag very well. Linnea Quigley is fun and all the ladies strip off their clothes to show off their top-shelf assets throughout, which I appreciated, including 80's bombshell Michelle Bauer (Demonwarp) in a role credited as the "Female Spirit of Sex" - so you know it's gonna be that sort of fun. High art is ain't but this slice of late night cable trash is sordid and fun in a z-grade cinema sort of way.
MURDER WEAPON (1989)
Label: 88 Films
Region Code: B
Duration: 81 Minutes
Rating: Cert.18
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio Format: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: David DeCoteau
Cast: Lyle Waggoner, Linnea Quigley, Karen Russell, Stephen Steward, Mike Jacobs Jr., Eric Freeman, Richard Sebastian, Victoria Nesbitt
Finishing up this trio of late-80s trash is the sexy thriller Murder Weapon (1989) starring Linnea Quigley as Dawn, a troubled young woman who has just been released from the loony bin after getting a bit too cozy with her shrink, which forces him to release her early. Through similar means her asylum bestie Amy (Karen Russell) is also released early, for lascivious behavior involving a doctor. Straight out of the asylum the pair of wild and crazy chicks hook up at Amy's mafia connected dad's mansion for a weekend of drinking, partying and getting laid. To that end they invite a group of old flames to the mansion and the deadly games begin! One of the old flames is played by Eric Freeman, who you will certainly best remember as the mad-Santa Ricky from Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, with more of his signature muscle flexing and extreme eyebrow acting!
This sexy-thriller is a bit of nutso fun, with flashbacks to the asylum, and a prologue that doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything, but there's lots of scenes of babes rubbing on sun tan lotion and chilling by the pool, an erotic leg shaving scene, and a fair amount of surprisingly bloody carnage, including a scene of the killer pushing their black-gloved hand right through someones chest and feeding them their own heart, now that's a nice piece of WTF-ery right there!
So who's the killer, could it be one of the loony-ladies, the mafia connected father, or maybe the burnout rocker ex-flame? The mystery is honestly paper thin, but this sexed-up thriller was a lot of fun, worth it alone for the completely unhinged sex scene with Quigley riding up an convulsive, orgasmic storm atop her lover!
Audio/Video: All three films arrive on a 2-disc region B locked Blu-ray set from 88 Films. Nightmare Sisters (1988) takes up all of disc one with a 1080p HD image framed in the original 1.85:1 widescreem. Sourced from the 35mm camera negative, the image looks surprisingly crisp. I think I saw this one on the Up All Nite program on the USA Network back in the day and this obviously blows what I remember seeing away! There's a Vinegar Syndrome credit on here so I am assuming this is the same 2K scan they used for their U.S. release of the film. The PCM 1.0 Mono audio sounds good, clean and free of distortion, optional English subtitles are provided. There are no extras for Nightmare Sisters, or the other pair of films, just a start-up menu with the option to choose English subtitles.
Onto disc two we find Deadly Embrace (1989) and Murder Weapon (1989)sharing disc space, sourced from 2K scan of the 16mm camera negative framed in 1.78;1 widescreen, and again we see a Vinegar Syndrome credit, so this looks to be the same source as their 2016 double-feature Blu-ray of the same pair of films, unfortunately minus the extras that accompanied that release. The source looks near pristine, colors are vibrant, everything is nicely resolved and detailed, a very solid presentation throughout. Audio comes by way of English PCM 1.0 Mono with optional English subtitles, everything sounding clean and well-balanced.
The 2-disc release comes housed in an oversized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring some eye popping artwork from Graham Humphreys, which is also featured in the pair of discs inside, and on the sweet limited edition slipcover.
The Best of 80's Scream Queens is a fun threesome of cheesy goodness, it delivers on what it promises with three films starring a bevy of beloved 80's horror starlets in a trio of goofy, sex shockers that are sure to please fans of late-80s schlock with plenty of gratuitous nudity.
