"Run! Bitch Run!" review

Run! Bitch Run! (2009)

Director: Joseph Guzman
Writers: Joseph Guzman Robert James Hayes II

Christina DeRosa ... Rebecca
Cheryl Lyone ... Catherine
Peter Tahoe ... Lobo
Johnny Winscher ... Clint
Ivet Corvea ... Marla
Mike Tursi ... Abe
Chenoa Mason ... Holly
Liz Porter ... Starla
Lori Soleil ... Nurse Betty

Catholic schoolgirls are going door to door selling bibles in a sleazy exploitation movie. Their pleated skirts don't stand a chance of surviving. It doesn't take long before they knock on the door of a violent drug dealer and interrupt his tranquil Addams family existence. They disturbed him just as he was dispatching one of his hookers to an early grave. This would have ruined his whole day but when you're a depraved drug dealing pimp, you tend to come up with creative ways to amuse yourself. A true predator needs to catch his prey so he decides to let Catherine, (Cheryl Lyone), run for it so he can rape her when he pounces on her. This level of misogynistic brutality has an adverse effect on the nice Catholic girl and turns her into a mute assassin bent on revenge. Let the exploitation movie homages run baby run.

"Run! Bitch Run!" is a calculated, deliberate attempt to make a retro exploitation movie. There is a 70's sleaze vibe that permeates every frame of this movie. The spirit of Quentin Tarantino hangs heavy over "Run! Bitch Run!". For that matter, the ghosts of exploitation movies past must have paid the director a visit in his dreams and told him to make this movie. "I Spit on Your Grave" and "They Call her One Eye" are two other "rape and revenge" flicks that will spring to your mind while watching Catherine get her revenge after she gets raped.

But when you hear "Grindhouse" music playing over most of the action scenes, you'll know that this movie was meant as a calling card for the filmmakers so that they could show their love for Tarantino, Rob Zombie and anyone else out there who has a fetish for 70's exploitation. "Run! Bitch Run!" feels like it was made to make the case that it should fill a slot in a possible "Grindhouse" sequel. I'm all for sleazy movies but we don't need to keep reaching back to the 70's to show us the way to exploit blood, sex and ultra violence. We've learned a lot from that golden age of exploitation but it's time to move on.

But since "Run! Bitch Run!" is overflowing with naked women, sordid violence and general miscreancy, I can forgive most of its flaws. Cheryl Lyone does a good job as the nice girl, (in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform with her hair in a bun selling bibles) who flips out into a cold blooded killer, (in a nurses uniform with her hair down selling death with a pump shotgun). Ivet Corvea is the crazed hooker who carries a lot of the exploitation scenes. I must also praise Ivet and her drug dealing girlfriend for their great make out scene. I was praying that the filmmakers wouldn't neglect the sheer beauty of watching two pretty girls kiss each other and they didn't let me down. There are a lot of other women who take the time to get into the swing of things and take their tops off as well.

So if you've seen all of the 70's "rape and revenge" flicks and need another fix, "Run! Bitch Run!" is worth a look. The filmmakers have done their homework and execute the 70's sleaze playbook step by step to make sure you get your fill of exploitation madness.

SCORE: 3 out of 4 nasty nurses - They call her Catherine