Wonderful character development!
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
View MoreThree guys decide to get their way with a stripper. Things go bad and they get invited to dinner. This is a variation of the normal looking family cannibal theme. "Parents," "Blood Diner," "Hansel & Gretel,""Motel Hell," "Eating Raoul," "Flesh Eating Mothers," "Microwave Massacre," "Fresh Meat" "Delta Delta Die, " and "Cannibal Hookers" were superior films in the normal looking cannibal genre.The acting was okay considering the theme. The characters were not that great. The plot moved remarkably slow. Four strippers and no real nudity outside of butts and side breast. That amounts to false advertising. Even in the strip club they had their clothes on.Guide: F-word. Sex. Nudity?
View MoreThree guys—Jacob (Gabriel Horn), his simple brother Kai (Rj Hanson) and pal Derek (Samrat Chakrabarti)—leave the strip joint where they have been celebrating Kai's birthday and decide to follow one of the strippers, Ginger (Michelle Sinclair), back to her home in the hope of partying in private. Amazingly, Ginger agrees, inviting the guys (along with their bottle of tequila) into the house.The merriment takes a downward turn during a drunken game of 'dare' when Kai assaults Ginger: weapons are drawn and both Kai and Ginger are shot, Kai in the shoulder, the stripper taking a slug in the belly. When Ginger's stripper house-mates, lesbians Lin and Getty (Farah White and Melodie Sisk) and young protégé Crystal, suddenly arrive home, the men panic and hide; their evening goes from bad to worse when it transpires that the ladies of the house are cannibals and intend to have Ginger's attackers for dinner.Taking obvious inspiration from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM's iconic shot of a sliding door slamming shut is mimicked here), with echoes of Wes Craven's The People Under The Stairs, Ladies of the House might seem derivative in many ways, but proves to be an impressive debut from writer/director John Stuart Wildman nonetheless. The film owes much of its success to the well defined characters, a testament not only to Wildman's writing, but also the skill of the cast, whose nuanced performances ensure that the film's more cartoonish aspects never verge on the downright ridiculous.Inspired production design also helps to lend this film a unique atmosphere: the girls' style is a colourful mish-mash of '50s-themed pin-up kitsch and rockabilly, a garish look that lends itself perfectly to the tawdry subject matter, their home an eclectic collection of weird kitsch ephemera, the origins of which would most likely tell many an unsettling story.With its obvious exploitational elements, The Ladies of the House doesn't shy away from the nudity and gore either: there's a rather graphic lesbian sex scene between Lin and Getty (as Derek hides under their bed!), while the film's more splattery moments include a brutal scene of butchery and the macabre sight of a mutilated corpse presented as a guest at the girls' dinner table.A suitably downbeat ending sees the only survivor of the strippers' wrath dreaming of escape, while in reality resigned to his fate as Crystal's plaything.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.
View MoreA birthday outing with two brothers and a friend turns into a horrific fight for survival after they become trapped in a house with a "family" of malevolent women.Apparently this film was birthed by a single two-word phrase: "cannibal strippers". How do you take that combination and turn it into a feature-length film? If you happen to be talented (such as these filmmakers are), it apparently comes naturally.Add in some vibrant colors, reminiscent of "Amelie", and you have beautiful cinematography. The film's press kit says the aesthetic as inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk, though it is not obvious. We are also told it is a bit gender-bending and post-feminist, but this, too, seems questionable. Indeed, the victims here are men rather than women, but horror has had a long history of strong women and this is not outside of what we have come to expect. (This is not a criticism of the film, but rather just a question of how accurate the press kit is. Other viewers may see the gender politics differently.) Early on we have none-too-serious acting, which fits the light-hearted nature of the first few scenes. But the movie has its dark and disturbing moments, too, that will make the viewer squirm. Some great tension, and plenty of gore. We see a wide range from the character of Kyle, who is like a man-child in the body of Tor Johnson. Is he dim-witted, a victim, naive, or something more menacing? His character is quite complex, and perhaps the most interesting.Horror fans might see the film as Robert Rodriguez's "From Dusk Til Dawn" with just a dash of "Texas Chain Saw Massacre". But unlike the Sawyer family, this family is a bit more nonchalant about their appetites. Which completely changes the way we look at them: are they monsters if they are just acting "normal"? Or is that even more disturbing, because unlike Leatherface, they can blend in anywhere?This is not a perfect film, but we should not expect it to be. What it is, however, is a great exposition of a simple concept ("cannibal strippers"). The acting is better than average, and the direction and camera-work are top-notch. These are people to follow. And there is enough originality here to please even the jaded horror fan. A welcome addition to the cannibal subgenre!
View MoreIf you are interested in seeing a horror.thriller type movie I highly recommend TLotH. The characters of this adventure are what really make the film. ON top of that top notch writing by Justine Walford and the director skills of John Wildman, Make this an enjoyable film that will leave you scratching your head and saying, Did I just see that?? The detail is noted right down to the color themes selected throughout the film. All the actors and actresses took to really making us believe in their characters and as you watch you find your self routing for the woman. Farah White as the motherly Lin, Shows compassion but when needed is tough as nails. Melodie Sisk as Getty, The real deal, Gets her hands bloody dirty, kicks ass and takes no bull s@#%t.Brina Palencia as Crystal, Love struck,young oh and crazy.The woman rule this movie from start to finish. All the males were fantastic but without a doubt for this one it definitely is fem-power.
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