Reaction & Review | The Ladies Club

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a revenge exploitation film from 1986. That movie is "The Ladies Club".

Now this movie caught my interest, mostly because of it's premise. Basically, the premise to this movie is that a bunch of women form some sort of vigilante group against certain rapists that were able to get away with their crimes via technicalities, as they basically kidnap and castrate them as a means of justice. And I'm gonna tell you, guys, that sounds like a really cool premise, because I really like revenge movies. Well, ones that are decently written anyways. I've run into quite a few of them for this series, and most of them really sucked. So, I'm hoping this movie might be able to pull off something interesting here and be halfway decent.

Now, you may also have noticed that I labelled this movie as a "revenge exploitation" film. And the reason why I did that was because, while this movie is pretty much advertising itself as a revenge flick, there's also something else that kinda made me want to label this as an exploitation movie. You see, around the time that this film was released, some film critic named Carrie Rickey (whom I've never heard of, BTW) dubbed this movie as "the first feminist exploitation movie". Now, I have no idea how truly accurate that statement really is, because I've never heard of anyone labeling a movie as a "feminist exploitation movie", but it was something that caught my eye, which is the reason why I added in the exploitation bit as one of this movie's genres.

So anyway, regardless of whether or not this is truly the "first ever feminist exploitation movie", I'm still curious to find out whether or not this movie is gonna end up being any good or not. The only way I'm really gonna find out the answer to that, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Ladies Club".

11 minutes later

So, this cop says to Joan that what happened to her wasn't important, to which he follows up with saying that what's important is that those punks beat the shit out of her, and that he should've been there to help her. Ignoring the fact that, while yes, getting beat up by those thugs was pretty bad enough, she was also fucking raped by them as well! It seems a little bit messed up to me, guys, that this cop thinks that getting beat up is more important than getting raped. Now yes, it's very well possible that he doesn't know the full story, but still, it just seems kinda messed up to me.

9 minutes later

So, let me if I understand this. According to a couple of these thugs, which, mind you, this is all taking place in court, are testifying about how Joan was the one who bit one of these guys necks because she had "one too much to drink". And another accusation was that one of them was bit on his neck by Joan before she said "Oh god, I'm cumming". Now obviously, these guys are lying their asses off to protect themselves, but is no one gonna check on these supposed bite marks on their neck or fingernails that clawed into one of these guys back, that was supposedly made by her? I'm really curious about this, and I have a funny feeling that they're not gonna explore any of this whatsoever.

15 minutes later

Wait, so their plan on getting these rapists is to give them a flask, which contains a drink that is also a powerful drug, and it will also keep them knocked out for several hours, which gives the girls enough time to castrate them. OK, everything they've said, so far, mostly makes sense. I'm wondering, though, how the hell you hand this drug to them when they eventually have to confront these rapists? I'm genuinely curious about that, and I'm hoping this movie will attempt to explain that in some fashion.

18 minutes later

Wait, did she just DRINK part of the flask? You know, the same kind of flask that's supposed to knock you out for several hours? Unless she was just faking it, then she's probably gonna be passed out at the worst possible time! And I'm not sure she's really gonna make it out of this alive. Just calling it a hunch here.

3 minutes later

OK, never mind. The guy that was about to knife and rape her just passed out after he drank most of that flask that she had. And somehow, she's still alive. I guess, maybe, she really did fake drinking the flask from a moment ago. So hey, good on her, I guess.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Ladies Club". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. So...what to even start with? Well, I knew what I was heading into, but I wasn't really sure how exactly it was going to play out. And I will say that, while this movie does have a couple of minor problems, it actually turned out to be pretty decent. I'm...kinda surprised by that, considering that I haven't found a decent revenge movie in a while, aside from the "Kill Bill" movies. But I am still pretty happy that I did find a rather decent revenge flick here.

So anyway, let's just dive right into this movie by talking about the writing. Now earlier, I mentioned that this movie was claimed to be "the first feminist exploitation film" by some movie critic that I've never heard of. Now again, I am not going to go into debate on whether or not that's actually the case, but I will say that this movie does kinda lean towards being a feminist film. That being said, this movie actually shows you on how to be a feminist movie in the right way. You see, a lot of modern movies nowadays like to portray their female leads as super-strong, always right, can never do any wrong, and barely has any flaws to them, because almost nobody knows how to write good female characters anymore for their movies. And so, as a result, they usually come off as mary-sues. Now the reason I bring up that kind of an example is because this movie shows you how to write good female characters. For starters, they act and feel like real people. They're not perfect in any way. They know that what they're doing by forming this club to go after certain rapists, and have their balls castrated afterwards, is absolutely wrong. They know the consequences of their actions, if they get caught doing this. But still, they manage on with their crusade, regardless of all that. And that's what I want more modern movies to take note of from this movie. Follow it's example, and you might actually have some decently-written female characters for your movies.

Now as for the story itself, it is a very well written revenge movie about these women wanting to go after certain rapists, because they seem to be getting away with all of their rape crimes. And the thing that makes this movie better is that, like I just mentioned, they're only going after certain rapists. And what I mean by that is that they're going after the career rapists that have been caught and released many times beforehand, since the women feel that the law is not doing them justice, which is why they decided to take the law into their own hands here. And speaking of the women, our characters here are fleshed out and you do have a reason to care about them, because you WANT to see them getting revenge against these rapists that have made it a career out of just getting away with their crimes. Now admittedly, there were a couple of gripes I did have with this movie. For starters, even though this movie was claimed to be a feminist movie, you never actually see any women being portrayed as rapists. It's only men. I say that, because women CAN rape other men, women, and children. Now it does make sense, on a narrative perspective, why they only showcase men here as the rapists in this movie. All I'm saying is that men aren't exclusively the ones who can rape other people. Granted, it's not as common with women, but it can still happen with them. The other gripe is that, even though I just said the characters here are fleshed out, I wouldn't say that applies to everyone. Aside from some of the male characters being written as the obvious rapists, the other male characters are very bland and one dimensional. And most of the women that form the club don't really get that much depth either. I'd say the ones who get the most depth are Joan, Lucy, and Dr. Constance, since they're the ones who get plenty of time to flesh out their characters. Which makes sense, considering that they are mostly the main characters, while everyone of the other women are just there as supporting characters.

One other thing that did kinda bother me was something that I brought up way early on. And it was the courtroom trial, where the 3 rapists that ended up raping Joan get off with a not guilty verdict. Now again, I totally understand that this is suppose to be the set-up to kick off our main plot, but it still kinda bothers me some. Mostly because, the rapists are telling this story that Joan had a party at her home, and she got a little bit 'too careless' and started jumping at our male characters. For instance, one of them explains that Joan came at him as she bit his neck with her teeth marks. And another explains that she had "one too many to drink", so she basically claws one of their backs with her fingernails while screaming "Oh god, I'm cumming!". And what I was thinking was that this story could've been easily debunked. Because, one, she obviously never had a party at her house. And if she did, who exactly else was there that can corroborate this story? And I don't mean the guys that obviously raped her telling this story, I'm talking about anyone else that was at this supposed party. Don't we get a saying from any of the other 'party guests'?  I guess not, because they never get mentioned. And for that matter, did Joan send any kind of invitations out to these people? And if so, can we SEE these invitations just so we know that Joan had this supposed party to begin with? I'm just saying, guys, this story can be easily debunked with little to no effort, and it would probably put these rapists in their place.

Now I totally understand that this all trivial and fucking stupid, but it was something that did sorta bother me a bit. But despite all that, the writing here is still pretty good, and I would say that this is how you do a feminist movie properly. And what makes it better is the acting. The acting here is, mostly, really solid. Most of everyone here turns in a pretty good showing. The only bits of acting that were kinda off is when almost any female character has to start crying, and it's only for about, maybe, two scenes where this happens. Once, when a female cop, and a friend to Joan's, begins to start crying because she had to take a rape victim to the hospital, and after telling her story to Joan, she begins to cry, but the crying she gives out sounds a bit...hokey. It just didn't sound really convincing, and it probably could've been fixed with a few more takes. The other bit is when Joan first starts to cry before hugging Constance somewhere at the beginning of the movie. Her crying, at the beginning sounded a bit hokey as well. But she did eventually make it sound more convincing later on, and she was able to pull out better emotions with her acting. And everyone else, like I said, did a really good job with what they were given to do. The crying at the beginning portions of the movie could've been more convincing, but it's not a huge deal overall, because, like I said, it did get better as the movie went on.

Special effects in this movie are very few and far between. And what I mean by that is that you rarely see anyone getting castrated, which was the big selling point of this movie's premise for me. You only get to see one example of it on their first go. And then afterwards, it's mostly told through a montage. I'm going to assume that this movie was made on a pretty low budget, but I would've like to have seen more of the effects of someone getting castrated. I will say that the blood effects, what very little there are anyway, are OK for what they are. The makeup effects involving bruises, though, look pretty good. And that's mostly involving Joan, at the very beginning of the movie, where she's seen lying down on a hospital bed. Granted, it's nothing amazing, but it still looked pretty good, regardless.

Camerawork here is OK, but I will say that the picture quality looks a little bit questionable. Granted, this is probably because I was watching this movie on YouTube. And according to the title, it was probably ripped from a VHS. Now mind you, it's not horrible-looking, and it's not completely unwatchable, but it is a little bit grainy for it's time. Still though, it's better-looking than some of the other movies that I watched off YouTube that had some of the worst picture quality I had ever seen. Movies such as "Mutant Hunt" and "Fright House" come to mind as 2 prime examples of having awful picture quality. Lighting here is decent. The sound-mix here is fine. The score here is nothing special, but at least it's serviceable, and it's better than nothing ,to be quite honest with you.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "The Ladies Club"? Yes, I mostly can. The only thing that I have to warn you on is the fact that this movie is, pretty much, what it advertises itself to be, which is a revenge film about rape. And I totally understand that it is a pretty heavy subject for a movie to focus on. So if you're someone who's not comfortable with the subject of rape being involved with a movie, then you might want to steer clear of this one, because it doesn't exactly shy away from this subject. However, if you're able to stomach that heavy subject, then what you have is a rather good revenge movie. And again, I'm surprised that I was able to find a good revenge film, seeing as how the ones I've seen for this series, most of them anyway, end up being complete shit. So this one is definitely a breath of fresh air, considering a lot of the bad ones that I had to sit through for this series. The only exceptions to this are, obviously, the "Kill Bill" movies. However, those movies are kind of in a league of their own. So anyway, guys, I can totally recommend "The Ladies Club", again, as long as you're able to stomach the subject of what this movie is going for. So yeah, if this movie's still up on YouTube at the time that I've written this review, go ahead and check it out. And if you like it enough, go ahead and find it on DVD or Blu-ray somewhere, as long as it's running for a cheap price. As for myself, well, since I just mentioned the "Kill Bill" movies, I'm gonna go ahead and re-watch the first "Kill Bill" movie right now. And if I'm in the mood, I may just marathon both movies at the same time. Who knows?

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.