I was 13 when this film was released. It played at porno grind houses. I first saw it in the late '70s at the old Bleecker Street Cinema. John Waters said, at the time, it was one of his favorite films and a big influence, which will be obvious to anyone watching. The movie received a huge revival via video in the 1980s and has remained popular until this day.
In the 1990s, I got to meet the film's star, underground icon Tura Satana, who passed away in 2011 at 72. At that point, Tura was working as a bodyguard in Vegas. The NYC bar Barracuda hosted this meet and greet, and Tura was quite sweet, actually, as we sat and spoke a bit. What's new, Pussycat? She told me making Kill Kill was "a gas" and everyone on the set had such fun.
The movie has such endless, rich dialogue, grand bad acting, but gorgeous black and white cinematography by Walter Shenk and editing by Meyer and Charles G. Schelling.
Tura, as Varla, and co-stars Haji (Rosie) and Lori Williams (Billie) are three hot-bodied strippers who go off on a crime spree, killing a man, taking his ingenue girlfriend hostage and moving in on a crippled old man who lives with two hot, hunky sons out in the California desert.
The print ads described this film as "an ode to the violence in women." And so, an off-screen narrator starts the film by declaring "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence." None too subtle. And, of course, welcome to sex while you'e at it (though nothing too hard core).
"The point is of no return," Varla announces at one point, "And you've just reached it!" So does this film at one point. Over-the-top fun that's not to be overlooked.
Available on dvd via Amazon.
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