Machete Maidens Unleashed (2010)

Machete Maidens Unleashed is a retrospective documentary discussing the creation and expansion of the films made in the philippines. Directors, actors and other people involved in the exploitation genre help tell the story of the conception and demise genre and film projects in the exotic Asian country.

The three B's (Blood breasts and beasts) are what sold the first Pinay filmed exploitation movie, "The Blood Beast" to American audiences. After it proved to be a successful business model, they continued to follow it until the films got stale. When Roger Corman entered the scene he took the films to another level. His company built their success on the exploitation and empowerment of women. He ushered in the "Women in Prison" sub-genre and after a while, the female viewers began to see the women depicted in the films as as liberating and heroic. For all of the abuse and degradation heaped on them, by the end of the movie, those women were portrayed as action heroes and leads, which was something that wasn't done at the time. Filmmakers of the era would say that "Viewers were given the best of both worlds."

What was Learned:

It was cheaper to film there and everything was exploitable women, jungle, the army, everything.

Apocalypse Now was the biggest American Film to ever be filmed in the Philippines. 

Pam Grier was a virtual untalented and unknown casting and she's just about the most famous or prominent actress who had come from those films.

Marketing and Taglines helped to further sell these films to the masses. They even created false acting awards to sell the films (ie "International Black Belt Olympic Winner") {Eh. Wasn't real at the time.}

Since they were not bound by the MPAA, There weren't too many rules or boundaries so they often pushed barriers.

The Exploitation Genre set the standard for low budget horror. They had a lot of leeway and got away with a lot of shit that could clearly never be in the films of today. {Never}

The Big Doll House was the first Women In Prison film and set the standard the genre. The Actresses had basically went through a lot of crap in the filming of their scenes. Including living in the jungles of the Philippines, and dealing with snakes, cockroaches, torture scenes and ridiculous heat.

Genre shift went From low budget monster films to women in prison, to sci-fi, to action, to black exploitation with male and female negro leads.

Political content was the norm for a lot of the exploitation films of the 60's and 70's. 

1973 was the birth of the black exploitation films. The first one was titled "Savage."

In 1974 they combined the black exploitation film with Kung-Fu. {The rest as they say, is history.}

"White Tupac" David Carradine taught martial arts to a few of the actresses. 

Many believe that often, the trailers were better than the films themselves.

Roger Corman was/is a forefather in the genre/industry and he's started the careers of many people in Hollywood.

Once Spielberg and Lucas successfully took the exploitation formula(low budget crappy effects, blood, studio free) and made A-Films, (Jaws and Star Wars, respectively.) The genre began to knock on death's door. After Jaws, anything that even mimicked big budget films (A-films) were universally panned. Critics turned away, theaters closed and viewership declined. Once political upheaval took root in the Philippines, it became too risky to shoot and the end came after insurers stopped issuing bonds for the studios to film.

Machete Maidens is actually a pretty good documentary. Everyone came alive when talking about the genre and their films in particular. It seemed like an awesome time in cinema and one that can never be replicated. Exploitation films aren't for everyone but it's always good to learn the roots of cinema and get a peek of how movies are made. Everyone involved with this genre fondly recall their roles in it's history and that makes this one better.

Out of Ten? 7

Violence? Yes
Explosions? Yes
Nudity? Hardcore