HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Steel and Lace Sexy cyborg set to kill
Year: 1991
Director: Ernest Farino
Stars: Claire Wren, Bruce Davison, Stacy Haiduk, David McNaughton, Michael Cerveris, Scott Burkholder, Paul Lieber, Brian Backer, John J. York, Nick Tate, David L. Lander, John DeMita, Brenda Swanson, Cindy Brooks, Hank Garrett
Genre: Sex, Thriller, Trash, Science FictionBuy from Amazon
Rating:  6 (from 1 vote)
Review: After enduring a gang rape classical pianist Gaily Morton (Claire Wren) suffers the added injustice of seeing the perpetrator, yuppie scumbag Daniel Emerson (Michael Cerveris) acquitted in court. Thanks to the testimony of his four friends. A distraught Gaily flings herself off a rooftop leaving her devoted brother, brilliant scientist Albert (Bruce Davison), devastated. Five years later Danny and his pals are rich business partners forcing vulnerable people out of their homes to make way for more lucrative properties. One night a car breakdown leaves one of the group, Craig (John J. York), stranded until a sexy blonde (Cindy Brooks) in a tight blouse and pink miniskirt happens along offering him a ride. It is not long before they are fooling around at a motel room. Whereupon a robotic drill pops out from between the girl's breasts to eviscerate Craig. Right after she rips off her synthetic skin revealing herself as Gaily, revived by Albert as a murderous cyborg bent on revenge.

For some reason video rental stores in the early Nineties were inundated with 'sexy cyborg lady' B-movies. Set beside Eve of Destruction (1991) and the atrocious Robo-C.H.I.C. (1990), Steel and Lace stands out by virtue of some quirky flourishes, intriguing melancholy drama and sporadically stylish direction by Ernest Farino, a visual effects artist who worked on The Terminator (1984) and The Thing (1982). While not up to that standard the gory effects (including the aforementioned drill murder, and a victim drained to a withering husk during sex) are a lot of fun even if Gaily's cyborg super-powers seem somewhat inconsistent. Interestingly our semi-automated anti-heroine bears a name somewhat similar to 'Gally': the original moniker of the titular wide-eyed cyber-waif from the Japanese manga and anime Battle Angel Alita (1993), later remade as the live action Hollywood film Alita: Battle Angel (2019). Maybe creator Yukito Kishiro was a fan of this obscure American offering.

Co-produced by DTV staple David DeCoteau (who mercifully did not direct), Steel and Lace is essentially a sci-fi twist on a Seventies rape-revenge thriller. I Spit on Your Grave (1978) by way of Robocop (1987) if you will. Co-writers Joseph Dougherty (an accomplished playwright and veteran of film and television) and Dave Edison adopt a seduce-and-kill story structure evoking such varied Cornell Woolrich-inspired forerunners as François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black (1967) and Jess Franco's She Killed in Ecstasy (1970). However this story is enveloped by a secondary plot centered on Alison (Stacy Haiduk), a neurotic courtroom sketch artist turned amateur sleuth, and her efforts to unravel the murder mystery. Aided by her grouchy ex-boyfriend Detective Dunn played by An American Werewolf in London (1981) star David Naughton (whom Alison inexplicably nicknames: 'Clippy' (?)). Alison comes across as an unusually dispassionate heroine, a detail hard to discern as intentional or not. Her prosaic subplot regrettably saps momentum from the more compelling duo of beleaguered-obsessive mad scientist Albert and his tormented creation Gaily who grapples with an identity crisis.

While the filmmakers a knack for winningly weird set-ups with scenes that suggest Steel and Lace was intended to be at least partly satirical (e.g. various novelty deaths; a weirdly homoerotic encounter between informant Toby (Scott Burkholder) and an FBI agent (John DeMita) who sprouts breasts and morphs into Gaily; Danny's casual indifference during a moment of silence honoring Craig's death), other sequences are played for utmost solemnity. Clare Wren and Bruce Davison bring a pathos and conviction to their tragic roles that serve to elevate the fundamentally cheesy B-movie nature of the plot. Indeed the melancholy finale is downright affecting though it is still hard not to laugh when someone shouts "somebody get a doctor over here!" right after a man gets decapitated by a helicopter blade.

Reviewer: Andrew Pragasam

 

This review has been viewed 2725 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Darren Jones
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
Graeme Clark
  Desbris M
   

 

Last Updated: