Directed by Scotty JX
Review by Matt Black

Released by Action Girls.com
Running Time 90 minutes
Rating: R - TBC
Color format: Color
Audio/Subtitles: English Language
Region Code: 1, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
16:9 Enhanced: Yes
Special Features: Screener disc, no extra features were included.
Trailer Online: Yes

“Somewhere in the not-too distant 21st century…

New unknown plagues swept the earth killing billions of people, wiping out entire generation. World stock markets crashed as the technological world, as we knew it, crumbled. Families were shattered, forced to survive under the worst living conditions as our society retreated to a more brutal, animalistic way of life.

Without shelter and food, murder and mayhem became a fact of life -- and survival. Many combined forces by swarming the wasteland in packs searching for survivors to join them… or die. Within these gangs came corruption of the worst kind. No place was safe to hide from the tyranny. Women, treated the worst of all, were forced to breed with leading gangs to create more members.

The most notorious of these gangs was known as Helman’s Death Squad.

Helman Himmler their leader was a slave trader who specialized in the female slave trade. Using women as currency, Helman stored up wealth beyond reason and had assembled an army of followers stretching across Europe to the far reaches of the former Soviet Union.

Helman had an eye for the ladies, but especially for ones who could fight. Nothing pleased Helman more than a female pit-bull by his side.

Winning Helman’s companionship meant passing his tests. Special fighters who caught his eye would be put to the challenge and the winners would have a shot at winning his side by competing in the ‘Arena of Death’.

Anyone who dared to oppose those rules were slaughtered.

Alone and outnumbered, some chose to fight against his reign of terror by training themselves in the art of guerrilla warfare. Word began to travel of these few brave soldiers and their acts of courage. Standing strong and independent against numerous odds, these strong-willed women refused to conform to the rules of tyranny.

This is the story of those few strong women…”

And so begins Scotty JX’s new franchise, Action Girls: Soldiers of the Dead Part 1, a heady mix of Sexploitation, Horror, Nazisploitation, Women in Prison and Post-Apocalypse movie.

The film initially focuses upon one lead character, a woman who rises through the ranks of Helman’s ’Arena of Death’ (bring on the fully naked girls with only sword and shield to protect their modesty) to become a slave master… cue leather-clad fetish queen, with a procession of fully naked female slaves made to kiss her boots and generally sit around looking good naked.

In gaining Helman’s trust, this female lead escapes, planning to rebel against his slave trading empire which helps build the remaining storyline.

En route we’re introduced to Helma’s prized possession… a blonde, nazi regalia clad , slave queen (Adriana Zarcova), who, feeling neglected of Helman’s attentions, sets off on her own after accidentally discovering secret government plans for how to create undead super soldiers! Here the Ilsa She-Wolf-esque character turns more into Herbert West, planning to create her own master race of re-animated dead, built like Schwarzeneggar on steroids and with only chaos and destruction on their minds!

The film does of course take several genre pit stops, with characters / scenarios that could be compared to countless films such as Joe D’Amato’s The Arena, The Ilsa movies, Re-animator to name but a few, all mixed together with frequently naked or severely skimpily dressed, hot girls, kicking more than Cynthia Rothrock. It’s basically bad girl cinema with other genre elements thrown in for good measure.

Soldiers of the Dead is Scotty JX’s sideways step from basic naked girls with guns soft core formula, into a more sexploitation / bad girl cinema field. While the is an abundance of frequent nudity on display here, it never goes into the more pornographic territory of his other material that can be seen at www.actiongirls.com, featuring household names like Sylvia Saint.

From the early 1970’s ‘Roughies’ and ‘Satanic Sickies’, through the films of directors such as Joe D’Amato or Jess Franco, to more recent efforts such as Porn of the Dead, Grub Girl, Slaughter Disc, Re-penetrator, Fantom Kiler or its hardcore remake Fantom Seducer, the two genres of porn and horror have often had periods of crossover with mixed success.

We’ve also often seen porno stars such as Marilyn Chambers, Traci Lords, Ron Jeremy or Jenna Jameson take steps towards becoming “legit” with ventures into the horror arena… while at the same time, in recent years we’ve also had a lot of essentially mainstream films such as Romance, Brown Bunny, Baise Moi, Short Bus and 9 Songs, all showing actual penetrative sex in non-pornographic scenarios. A blurring of lines is starting to slowly emerge and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

The Action Girls franchise potentially falls slap bang in the middle of this; while it’s never likely to win any awards for plot or acting skills and probably won’t grab an out and out mainstream audience, it will likely catch the attention of indie Horror / Exploitation fans, with no objection to masses of naked female flesh on display.

In much the same way as the Fantom Kiler series, Action Girls takes adult starlets and puts them into a more exploitation field. The strength here for Scotty JX is that he has higher production values and (not to put a too finer point on it) more conventionally attractive female cast members, and if treated correctly more potential to drive the series somewhere.

While in some ways Soldiers of the Dead Part 1 is a little hit and miss; the first hour or so being quite cheesy, yet entertaining guilty pleasure exploitation fodder, it does unfortunately descend into a prolonged fight / chase scene for the last half an hour, which although amusing at first, quickly outstays its welcome.

However, if given a bit more structure and editing, this could be easily rectified. Also, while not wanting to sound like a salivating gore-hound, I’m very aware that the film may benefit from more of a gore content than that which it displays… and maybe slightly uping the scenes of “peril”, such as those with a naked girl covered in rats. I think many horror fans who would buy into the film are likely to be those who enjoy a healthy dose of the red stuff with their T&A.

All in all, an interesting guilty pleasure first part of a series, which while maybe not 100% hitting the mark , it will be interesting to see how things develop in part 2.