I have been looking forward to many indie & underground films people are making…but probably none more so than Christopher Bickel’s BAD GIRLS (2021). For me, it would be very, very hard to top his previous classics The Theta Girl and Vampyras Psychedelikas. But…… Bickel, his film making team and the BAD GIRLS (Morgan Shaley Renew, Shelby Lois Guinn, Sanethia Dresch) themselves did it. The gauntlet has been thrown down and the Fiend ‘O’ Meter exploded.
The opening 3 minutes of this film quickly set up the entire plot and are better than most filmmaker’s entire features.
Plot from Facebook page:
“After violently robbing a strip club, three desperate teenage girls lead a misogynistic Federal Agent on a lysergic cross-country chase, scoring a duffel bag full of money, drugs, and a crew of willing kidnapees”
Chris has taken his love of old exploitation and 90’s drug films and added his own modern twist. This is a very low budget affair that through a solid team of people and some smart & innovative film tricks, BAD GIRLS is next level. The script is dialogue heavy and pretty speedy, scenes move at a very quick clip…barely a slow moment to be had here.
The violence is insane and over the top. Bullets fly, knives are inserted and bottles busted over heads. The drugs are top shelf and ingested often. So many questionable and deviant things going on.
Note on the drug sequences… I am just stunned by the visuals they came up with. Even more trippy than what we saw in Theta and Vampyras…it’s so wild, it might have actually happened for real!
The music totally kills too…
Overall, this is one of the best modern underground exploitation films I have seen in a bit. I don’t know how Chris can top it (maybe get the aborted SISTER VENGEANCE back on the docket) but I know he will do it. Kudos to all involved, everyone is going to get more work from this. If you told me this was a 500,000 to a 1 million dollar picture, I wouldn’t question it. Seriously blows everything out of the water. It’s mind boggling good.
Fiend ‘O’ Meter hits an 11/10
The Magnificent World Of Dave K 