DEVIL GIRLS (2000)
Directed by Andre Perkowski
Bowlegged Man Media VHS
Reviewed 03.12.04
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba

THE FILM
Brilliant concept. Excellent execution. Frenetic Oddity. That about sums up Ed Wood’s Devil Girls, a shot-in-Chicago rarity from a few years back.

Hey, don’t get me wrong -- Ed Wood himself had absolutely nothing to do with this film. It’s just a very interesting Wood-obsessed experiment. Imagine the tendencies of Ed Wood’s style of filmmaking, just multiplied and warped a million times over and filtered through a totally spazzed out method of cinematography. Interested? Read on...

Sheriff Buck Rhodes has his hands full. Juvenile delinquents and maddening drugs are ripping up the streets. With the help of his sidekick, Officer Cline, and the Reverend, Rhodes begins investigating the recent death (by explosion) of a teacher. Little does he know that it’s the work of a tough, drug-riddled girl gang -- the Devil Girls! The girls get involved with a big drug deal, kill their boyfriends, and start to double cross each other. All the while, Criswell chimes in with nonsensical monologues and tons of non-related stock footage. Oh yeah, and Lobo shows up to use a little of the ol’ strong arm for good measure as well.

Best as I can tell, Andre Perkowski took the basic plot of Ed Wood’s 1969 novel, Devil Girls, added his own Woodsian touches (both story-wise and visually), and ended up with a successful nonlinear film collage. It’s funny, hypnotizing, well shot, and most importantly, very schizophrenic -- characters appear and reappear out of nowhere, the Reverend is always located in a different setting than the character he’s conversing with, and stock footage is abused like it’s going out of style. Shot on digital video and some actual film (I think), this movie oozes with charms and lots of fake “film” filters.

If you’re into the whole world of Ed Wood, you’ll probably love this film. If not, it’s still interesting as an experimental oddity.

AUDIO AND VIDEO
The film has fake lines, scratches, hairs, and cuts running in over abundance throughout. Of course it’s all done on purpose and works very well. I had a hard time deciphering between film and DV at many points during the film, which is a good thing. The dialogue was a bit low at times (mostly due to the way it was recorded) and there were some crackles in the audio. This may be the result of a rental tape showing its age.

EXTRAS
No sir.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Devil Girls has a little bit of everything. The film tends to wear itself thin a bit towards the end, but I couldn’t help having a great time while viewing. You’d be hard pressed to find anything else quite like it anywhere.

The big "H"


The fuzz


Lobo speaks


The mighty Criswell