Of all the things in life you'd think it'd be hard to make a comedy based upon, it would be the rape-revenge movie. But it's out there in the form of Ron Bonk's She Kills, a loving homage to the grindhouse of the 70s and 80s and a pretty fun offering in its own right.

It's well-documented that the rape-revenge film is not typically my favourite – there are a handful that I have enjoyed by virtue of taking a slightly different approach to the old formula, but those are pretty rare. However it's fair to say the She Kills was certainly something different to anything exploring the idea than I've ever seen before.
 
The story follows an unfortunate young lead in Sadie, who is about to get married to strait-laced Edward, before the young couple fall foul of a gang by the name of The Touchers. It's only here we discover Sadie's terrible secret – she suffers with 'fire crotch', a condition which means her vagina has been claimed by Satan (a sentence I never expected I would type).The very sight of her naked drives the gang into a brutal frenzy, with Edward being eaten in a cannibalistic frenzy while Sadie is raped in turn by each one of the men in what is a pretty confusing scene tonally. The whole thing is kind of presented for laughs, but to me it just feels a bit uncomfortable to laugh at this sort of moment, no matter how it's presented. Sadie suffers yet more difficulties at home when her own father is drawn in by her condition, only for her brother to come to the rescue and defeat her dad in an extended martial arts conflict.
 
You're probably getting a sense from this that She Kills is a bit odd, and it feels like a very mixed bag as a whole. There are parts of the film that are genuinely funny, either when things become extremely overblown or with some very fun fourth wall breaks throughout. As well as the above it features cats and dogs being used as weapons, an attempted space vagina exorcism (yes, really), a man spitting out his own testicles and plenty more bizarreness besides. It's certainly quirky, and if you like parody you're likely to get something out of it. As someone who's never been much of a grindhouse expert it's eminently possible that some of the references have whistled straight past me, but there are times when I feel the movie is trying a bit too hard to garner a reaction. As I said, there were genuine chuckles in here, but some scenes just felt too over-the-top or too strange to really stick for me.

One of the highlights for sure is the lead performance by Jennie Russo as Sadie, who is really committed to it and plays everything in this slightly overblown way with great expressiveness. But in other cases the exaggerated facial expressions and reactions just don't quite stick, and that's probably indicative of my overall feeling about She Kills. It has energy and verve and some really fun stuff, but it just feels slightly confused and messy as a whole, moving in sections that doesn't always feel like they really hang together. It's good, but it feels like it could perhaps have been great.
 
RATING: 6.5/10. She Kills is certainly different and plenty out there, which often works and sometimes doesn't quite work. There are plenty of highs but a few lows as well, and a slight feeling that maybe if the movie were a bit shorter it could have been even better. Still, there is definitely some fun to be had here, and if you are very much into your grindhouse there's every chance you'll find plenty to like here.

 
If there's anywhere that we've frequented in Europe more than any other country, it would likely be Germany. With legendary extreme directors such as Marian Dora and Jorg Buttgereit emerging from the country, as well as many other individuals that divide opinion such as Olaf Ittenbach and Timo Rose, it's a nation with a proud tradition in the field and lots of quantity as well as a fair bit of quality. However it's fair to say that it's not a country that I would readily associate with horror-comedy, so it was a pretty pleasant experience stumbling upon this one. I've always rather enjoyed short films, so Forklift Driver Klaus – The First Day On The Job immediately spoke to me in many respects. And I have to add this was a pretty fun way to while away ten minutes of your time – especially if you've ever encountered the professional menace that is health and safety.

There were a few minutes in which I wasn't quite sure if I was just watching an educational workforce video, such was how it was shot. We're introduced to Klaus, who has just earned his forklift driving licence, and is bright and eager to get cracking in the new role. The reason it's hard to tell apart from an actual 1980s informational video is that the shooting is dead on – it has the cheesy acting, the terrible upbeat music, the chipper voiceover – it truly has it all. However the first day goes anything but swimmingly, as Klaus allows one of his colleagues to hitch a lift to a high shelf on the fork – with deadly consequences.
 
Of course that's the first of many calamities in his first day on the job, which do gradually scale up from that tumble to the concrete through to a man losing his hands in the machinery of the forklift's engine, to another employee being sliced clear in half by a sheet of glass through to a finale that is absolutely bloodsoaked mayhem – although still keeping the surreal humour of the whole piece.

Basically put, Forklift Driver Klaus is unlikely to live too long in the memory but it is good fun and there's a number of decent chuckles to be had throughout. The tone is dead on perfect – so much so that I wondered if I had just stumbled on a piece of 80s workplace video – and the performances are suitably wooden to go with that style. The effects are decent, if not spectacular, and if you're a bit stuck and want to kill a bit of time without launching into a long movie it's good entertainment. And I'll be checking out if these directors have done anything more substantial on the back of this little snippet.
 
RATING: 8/10. It's a bit too slight of a piece to really rate highly, but it's something that did make me smile and the gore effects are pretty fair. But it does wonderfully capture the absurdity of health and safety videos whilst in a strange way somehow driving home the value that they actually have. There's not a lot of flat out comedy to be had in this neck of the woods, so when it's done and done well then it does stand out nicely. For the first day on the job it's a very fine effort for 8/10.