Review of Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) by Dwain P — 08 Jun 2011

"Machete Maidens Unleashed" is a fun, if ultimately cursory and slightly shallow, look at 1970s exploitation films shot in the Philippines. The feature's strength is in its tone and content.

Like the movies at its core, "Machete Maidens Unleashed" does not take itself seriously. It's loopy and silly and knows it. As a result, "Machete Maidens Unleashed" is engaging and briskly paced throughout.

The documentary offers gloriously lurid trailers and sequences from some of the best terrible movies every made as well as generally dynamic "talking head" sequences with Roger Corman, Sid Haig, Pam Grier, Margaret Markov and several other directors, actors, actresses and film historians familiar with the "women in chains" and jungle action movie subgenres.

For persons just looking to have an hour introduction to the movies and the era, all of this will work and you will want to see these movies to see if they are as laugh-out-loud bad as they appear to be (yes, they are.

I own or have seen enough to know that to be true!). Persons already familiar with these films interested in a more academic or sustained analysis may be slightly disappointed. Historical contextualization and deeper background on 1970s films culture, the Philippines under the Marcoses, these films' contemporary and ongoing impact are absent here.

The film also ends rather abruptly, explaining the genres' collapse in a matter of two minutes. In the final analysis, though, an academic film about B-movies would never resonate with general audiences.

This one will and is worth watching to learn more about one of the strangest moments in schlock film history.