Review: Switchblade Sisters (1975)

A fun outing from exploitation master Jack Hill, Switchblade Sisters follows a gang of tough girls and the boys in their lives. I say girls and boys because the movie places all of these characters in high school, though they're all played by people in their twenties. It's an odd tone that Hill strikes, but it works: high school backstabbing and drama, played out with switchblade battles, machine guns and molotov cocktails. The female gang, The Dagger Debs and The Jezebels are fun to watch, and the actresses that portray these tough girls from the wrong side of the street do a great job at conveying strength, vulnerability, fear, and malice when the script calls for it. TV fans will enjoy seeing a young Don Stark, who played Bob Pinciotti on That '70s Show, as a tough guy punk who can't quite handle the heat when things get really wild. While not rising to the same heights as Spider Baby or Foxy Brown, this Jack Hill jam feels like a mid-seventies after school special on crack. And that's a good thing.