Killer Barbys

Killer Barbys (AKA Vampire Killer Barbys)

1996

Director- Jess Franco

Cast-Silvia Superstar, Santiago Segura, Mariangela Giordano, Aldo Sambrell, Charlie S. Chaplin,  Carlos Subterfuge, Los Angeles Barea, Billy King, Pepa López

            

  The main attraction in this film is the Spanish rock group The Killer Barbies, fronted by the beautiful Silvia Superstar. Why the name of the group and the name of the movie are spelled differently, I have no idea. Lost in translation perhaps? The band is leaving a gig and their van breaks down. They accept the hospitality of a stranger who invites them to stay the night in the local castle (perfectly reasonable, right?).

            

    The castle is the home of an aging movie star.  She is decrepit and rotting but uses the blood of sacrifices to bring back her youth, ala Elizabeth Bathory.  She has a loyal servant who procures victims for her. He is in turn served by a crazy man (played by Santiago Segura who fans may recognize as the Satanic metal head from El Dia de la Bestia ) and his little people minions. The band members catch on, but not before some gratuitous nudity and gruesome deaths ensue.

            

    If I hadn’t known that this movie was directed by Jess Franco, I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years that he was the director. It just feels very different than anything else I’d seen by him. Now granted, he was most prolific in the 60s and 70s and I guess I know him mostly from those films, so it’s natural that he would have changed over the next 20 years.

  However, even though the film was made in the mid-90s, it feels like a film from the late 70s or early 80s. The 90s have some good horror movies but I think the decade was a little weak compared to the 60s-80s, at least in terms of originality. Killer Barbys returns to the gothic settings and wilder, more unpredictable feel of an earlier decade. Or maybe that’s just the Spanish influence, who knows. If it weren’t for some of the grunge inspired hair dos, you’d think this movie was made around 1980. At any rate, this is a low budget movie, and it shows in several places. However, it’s got spirit, and is fun at times. It’s not a return to Franco’s earlier days of glory, but it shows that even in the tail end of his (incredibly long) career, he could still put together an entertaining movie. A sequel, The Killer Barbys vs. Dracula, was made in 2002.