I may have mentioned this before, but Jack Hill really has become one of my favorite cult/exploitation directors in recent years, mostly due to me randomly watching Pit Stop and Spider Baby on Amazon Prime, which led me to eventually getting those on blu-ray as well for the shelf. Another favorite of mine from him that I had to snag a copy of was The Swinging Cheerleaders, which I've always sort of considered to be "exploitation lite"-all the dirt and grime of sleazy people being sleazy people, but with a lot less violence and nudity. The Swinging Cheerleaders has heart, and no one could ever take that away from that film. But then here comes Switchblade Sisters. I had a feeling when I did a blind buy of the Arrow blu-ray that I was going to be into it just based on the fact that it was directed by Jack Hill, but I didn't think I would end up heralding it as one of his crowning achievements. My favorite from him up to this point has been Pit Stop, but honestly now it's a close second. Switchblade Sisters just gets everything that it needs to right and I feel like it's an all killer, no filler kind of deal where the run time and pace feels very fast and The Jezebels implode on themselves at the end for multiple reasons that just keep building up and building up to a healthy and battered climax of exactly where I thought it was going to go-and I loved every minute of it. Oh, and I thought it was amusing that Bob from That 70's Show is in here as Hook (one of the main guys in the Silver Dagger gang) when he was young, twenty and ripped. Yeah, dwell on that for a moment. Mr. Pinciotti with lean muscle and terrible 70's hair.
Switchblade Sisters focuses on the Silver Daggers, a teenage gang in high school consisting of the toughest, rowdiest bunch of dudes walking the streets and they have the Dagger Debs by their side to cover both ends of the spectrum. Dom and Lace are together forever, but when Maggie gets wrapped up in all of their bullshit after they decide to rough up a little corner restaurant that serves burgers and hotdogs, Dom takes it upon himself to thrust his loins onto Maggie in her parents apartment. I mean she is hot, but have some respect man. It all starts constructing itself into self destruction when Maggie slowly starts becoming the leader of the debs after the entire group gets arrested and they hilariously beat the shit out of the female warden and her girls in the juvenile slammer they end up in. The warden was sort of like a woman version of John Vernon from Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Nasty and just creepy. I wouldn't want her ass to strip search me either if I was a chick in prison. Maybe she was Officer Mooney's sister. It's possible. But patch keeps trying to convince Lace that Maggie is against her and she isn't her friend, and she eventually buys into it towards the end and transitions into one helluva chick fight. One of the best I've ever seen. And with switchblades. Hell yeah.
Even bad graffiti is still good graffiti.
Sharpening a knife and putting on perfume. What a mean girl.
Trying to repo a t.v. for forty bucks. You fat, sleazy bastard.
The gang's all here. Literally.
I've never seen a bunch of girls as street toughs before, but I'm into it.
"Get your hands off the fruit, faggot!"
Did the fat warden lady just fart? In the middle of a prison fight?
He's the leader of the Silver Daggers and he's in your apartment-so you can't just kick him out?
Damn this principle is a square.
Dude, Crabs-there's no way you could ever get a girl like Maggie. No way.
Road Rash at the roller rink!
Mao-fuck that guy.
Lacey has still got it.
Zits and zombies, I stand by what I said earlier. This is my new favorite from Jack Hill until I eventually purchase and watch all of his other material. But for now, Switchblade Sisters reigns supreme in my books. Pit Stop has a similar feel to it with people being tough and rigid and fighting all the time, but Switchblade Sisters takes the cake because of the scope of everyone involved. And I just think that chicks fighting each other with knives is just a tad more exciting than Sid Haig being a dingy. Well, maybe not that in particular, but you get what I'm saying. There are more characters here to fill out everything that's going on and this flick has an armored car where a black chick blasts a .50 cal at everyone in the middle of the street and escalates the gang wars higher than I thought they would go. If you want more guns and less knives, even though the title suggests there are more blades than bullets, here's your ride. Maggie could be your escort. She's a tough broad.
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