Screaming in High Heels

Great Memories but just not enough
Welcome to another edition of Sly Hondo’s Video Nasties Project After Hours, where we take a look at movies that we can’t do on imaginary cable access station WSTV. In this installment we’re looking at the 2011 documentary Screaming in High Heels by B+ Boy Productions. Subtitled the Rise and Fall of the Scream Queen Era, the documentarians wisely focus on the Three Musketeers of the Scream Queen World Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens, and Michelle Bauer. However, they do include such notable figures of the day as Fred Olen Ray and Jay Richardson. The film definitely triggers a sense of nostalgia with its old footage of conventions and movie clips from the early years of the women’s careers. Seeing footage of Linnea Quigley from 1975’s Psycho From Texas, Brinke Stevens from 1981’s Zyzak is King, and Michelle Bauer from 1986’s The Tomb really brings back memories of the VHS tapes that were coming home with me from the two local mom and pop video stores in my hometown. The best part is that even in these early appearances, these three actresses are impossible to miss whether they are clothed or naked, which the movie clips provide in abundance. And while the triple threat of Jason S. Danziger as writer, director and one of the executive producers does a fine job of reviewing the era of the Scream Queen, that’s the problem, it’s a review. The interviews and footage only seem to scratch the surface of this worldwide phenomenon. At only 63 minutes long, this hardly is the Rise and Fall of the Scream Queens but more like “Here is a Sample of the World of B-Movies in the Crazy 1980’s”. The film raises more rabbit holes than it answers. At one point in the movie, Michelle Bauer brings up the difference between “porn” and B-movie horror, but it is left as an open discussion that is never returned to. The downside of the fame these actresses had to deal with comes up on a few occasions, but stories are brief and incomplete. This documentary could have been much longer and more detailed. That being said it was wonderful to see the camaraderie and friendship these three clearly have with each other. At the end of the movie, a preview of a new movie (at least at the time the movie came out) featuring the women is shown. And while it had all the hallmarks of an 80’s B-movie, it did leave us wondering if the past 63 minutes had all been a set up to promote the new film. Left a sort of a bad taste in my mouth. It was still worth watching and the DVD quality is great considering some of the quality of the movie snippets. 4 out of 5 Stars.

MILF Madness, no huss!
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