Cheap Killer Barbys (DVD) (Jesus Franco) Price

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Customer Reviews of Killer Barbys

Tepid fury without the typical Franco flair! But cool music
Not one of Jess Franco's better films but certainly not one of his worst either. I would have liked to see this film directed by Franco but produced by his American company One Shot Productions. They would have trimmed a lot of the stale time and left us with pure Jess Franco. The story is pretty straightforward, espcially for a Franco film, with a rock band getting lost and winding up at the home a madwoman in search of human blood. Segura and Superstar are definitely the best elements of the film. The Killer Barbies music is especially hot! Kind of like having a female Joey Ramone singing the soundtrack. [Some trivia I learned in an interview: although this is not a One Shot Productions film by Franco, the head of One Shot Productions, Kevin Collins, actually gave the film its name when the actual producers realized that they might get sued if they called it "Killer Barbies"!]

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Killer Barbys
The Killer Barbies (the name of the film was changed for obvious reasons) are a rock band traveling to their next gig when their van breaks down. They are offered shelter for the night at the castle of Countess Fledermaus. Soon the band is being killed one by one for their blood. Mr. Arkan is restoring the rotting Countess to youth with blood. The remaining two members of the band kill Arkan and the Countess and flee to safety. This movie gave a shot in the arm to Jess Franco's career, which was lagging in the early nineties. He turns out a professional looking film that is a horror/comedy/rock movie for a new generation of fans. The film pokes fun at itself and the whole gore genre. The horror-comedy is a hard style to [fufill], but Franco pulls it off with genuinely funny dialogue and some ridiculous situations. There are some obvious continuity errors: the countess' death being one and the end titles state that Balthazar continues to roam the woods when we just witnessed his unquestionable death by steamroller! This is one of the more distinctive works in the latter part of Franco's career and his only take on the Elizabeth Bathory legend. This DVD has a lot of extras: an interview with Killer Barbies' Billy King and Sylvia Superstar and some of their music videos (see them do a cover of "Downtown"),and trailers for the film. Language tracks include Spanish w/ optional English subtitles and an English dub track. The transfer looks great too.