The Film (3/5)

     I am not overly familiar with the late phases of Jess Franco's career, but what I have seen of it has been rarely good. For a director who made over 200 films in his lifetime, he had quite a strong track record for making weird, bizarre, and fun films for a good amount of his  working life. However, starting in the 1990's things started to falter. Throughout the latter portion of his career he had a few interesting films, they were just more hit or miss than earlier, one of those rare hits was his 1996 film Killer Barbys.

    Killer Barbys follows a touring punk rock band the Killer Barbies as they are trying to make it from one show to the next.  They predictably get lost, and use a short cut to get back on track. This short cut causes them to end up with a broken down van, and forced to stay in the castle of the centuries old Countess Olga Fledermaus (Maria Angela Giordano). Predictably, things don't go well for the band as the countess uses blood and semen from her guests (acquired in the expected horror movies ways) to retain her youthful looks.  The longer they stay in the castle the more band members are attacked by Olga, and her dwarven henchmen.

     Jess Franco frequently worked within similar styles and frameworks within his career. He made multiple remakes of his Awful Dr. Orloff, or just films with his Dr. Orloff character in them. Killer Barbys is not an Orloff film, but carries elements of  his early gothic period, crossed with some of his early 70's work like Female Vampire. There is actually a sex scene toward the end featuring Maria Angela Giordano that feels like the bed post scene in Female Vampire updated for the 90's and with a near dead plus one added to the antics. 

    The performances from his cast are oddly solid. The Killer Barbies were a real rock band, and were obviously not trained actors, but they turn in fun, quirky performances that fit the material at hand. Their music plays frequently on the soundtrack, and is also a lot of fun. The rest of the cast is also quite good in their respective roles, and seeing Giordano (Malabimba, Satan's Baby Doll) in anything is always a treat.  Killer Barbys is not Jess Franco at his best, not even close, but it's a fun and entertaining film, and easily comes recommended.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

    Kino and Redemption present Killer Barbys in a solid 1:66:1 1080p transfer that looks natural, solid, and obviously better than this film has ever looked before. With that being said there is some minor damage from the source  including, speckling and scratches, but also some shaking of the source material during the credits sequence (opening).

    Audio is presented French, English, and Spanish. Spanish is stereo,  French and English are mono. Everything that sounds quite solid here, though the Spanish is the way to go as it fits more obviously with the film, and the track is more dynamically presented.

Extras (2/5)

    The sole extra on this release is another interesting and informative commentary by writer Troy Howarth who offers some interesting factoids about the film.

Overall

   Killer Barbys is not top tier Franco, but is entertaining, and fun.  The film looks and sounds solid on this Blu-ray release from Redemption, and has an insightful commentary by Troy Howarth. RECOMMENDED.