User reviews

The Legendary Spanish director Jess Franco is known for some fantastic cinema, alas this certainly isn't among them and will be a blotch on his record.

It follows a female fronted rock band as they break down on route to their next gig and get invited into a foreboding looking castle for the night.

Essentially our antagonist is a blatant ripoff of the Countess Elizabeth Báthory with a couple of human minions who help her acquire the blood of the young (Virgins not required in this instance)

Though advertised as a horror this is a very camp attempt and more like a comedy. One character in particular played by Santiago Segura (Blade 1998) is so over the top and so zany any hope of the film being taken seriously went out the window.

The movie has a decent lead and memorable soundtrack though they really should have considered writing more songs and not playing the same one on a loop.

The Good:

Great leading lady

The Bad:

Looks very dated

Not exactly a horror

Soundtrack gets repetitive

Dumbest ending in cinema history? Definite contender

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Before throwing a naked woman out a window to her death it's only polite to put a nightie on her first

This is not a completely horrible movie but it still is one that is about nothing really and all of its events lead to nowhere, making this one pointless and extremely forgettable movie to watch.

I really think that Jesus Franco is one of the worst directors of all time. But fair is fair, this movie is not half as bad as most of the other stuff he has done over the decades. Oneliners like 'worst movie ever!', 'completely unwatchable' or 'uttertrash' really don't apply to this movie.

But obviously this movie is not a great one either. It's not just a problem that the movie it's story is about nothing but it's more so a problem that the the storytelling is lacking focus. There is not really one clear main character and everything seems to happen at random. So the one moment we are having a killing, the other a sex scene and then there is a midget popping up as well every now and then. Why? Just because they could! It's not like any of it is really serving a purpose for its story. Focus Jesus Franco, focus!

Like you could expect from a trashy Jesus Franco movie, there is plenty of nudity in it, as well as sex sequences. Problem I always have with these moments in basically every Jesus Franco movie is that they serve absolutely no purpose and all and it always makes me think that they are only put in the movie to please Jesus Franco himself and to live his own fantasies. Even now, while he is in his 80's, he's still doing this sort of stuff.

The gimmick of this movie is that it stars a Spanish punk rock band in it, called "Killer Barbies" who are basically playing themselves but they were forced to change the title for this movie for the obvious reason. Don't really know the reasons for the band members to appear in this particular movie, since it doesn't seem like the most logical thing to boost your career with, especially not when Jesus Franco is at the helm of it all. But apparently they all had a good time, since they actually made a sequel to this movie, 6 years later, called "Killer Barbys vs. Dracula".

But besides this gimmick, it's a real run of the mill movie from Jesus Franco, that got made in 1996 but actually feels like the sort of stuff he used to make in the '70's and '80's already. Even seems to me they are still using the same sound effects as well, as well as all of the same gore effects and tricks. And they still believe they can shoot night sequences during the day time and think they can get away with it. This is seriously often one of the most distracting things about any low-budget horror production.

Perhaps not as bad as its current reputation and also far from the worst thing Jesus Franco has ever done but it clearly isn't a very good movie either.

4/10

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People who say this is the worst Jess franco movie obviously haven't seen too many Jess Franco movies. This has the same liabilities of many Franco flicks--the story is formulaic, the budget is non-existent, the film-making is borderline incompetent, the acting is terrible and the English dubbing is even worse. This movie is basically an extended promo for "the Killer Barbies", a less-talented, Spanish version of The Cramps with a sexy female lead singer, "Sylvia Superstar", who makes Britney Spears appear conservatively dressed by comparison. Fortunately, their music is a lot better than Britney Spears'. Unfortunately, it seems to consist of only two songs that they play over and over again, first in a live concert, then on the tape deck of their Scooby Doo-style tour van, and then non-diegetically on the soundtrack.

After their van breaks down in the remote countryside, the band members take refuge in a creepy old castle (except for one couple who remain in the van to have sex for a ridiculously long time, before getting chased naked through the woods and summarily slaughtered). The surviving Barbies prove pretty tepid heroes actually, but the villains are pretty good--they include long-time character actor Aldo Sambrell, actor/producer Santiago Segura (unknown in America, but a cult figure today in Spain) and two creepy-ass midgets. Most impressive though is the infamous Mariangela Giordano as a Countess Bathory type who needs the blood of. . . well, obviously not virgins, but young people, in order to restore her own youth. Giordano has a very long, blood-soaked, butt-naked nude scene, which is pretty damn impressive considering she was almost 60 at the time! Of course, if you're watching this to "flip one off the wrist" as it were, you might not want to witness an actress a few years shy of collecting a pension in the altogether (no matter how good she still looks), but this kind of polymorphous perversity is what I find most interesting about Franco. Maybe it isn't very sexy, but it's a lot more interesting than watching your usual silicone-enhanced bimbos going through the motions of tediously choreographed softcore sex scenes. Call me crazy.

"Sylvia Superstar" also has brief nude scenes (which is more than you'll get from a Britney Spear's movie and you'll suffer a lot less for the privilege). Ditto with the ridiculously horny female back-up singer (at least before she is regrettably "decapitated" and replaced with what is obviously a headless department store mannequin). The special effects are laughable as usual. This is hardly "the most violent Jess Franco movie" as is claimed in the intro, but it's far from the worst one either

Perhaps the worst dubbing in history, this movie features many scenes with characters' lips still moving long after the dubbed track had already spoken. It was very frustrating. On top of that, the entire movie made little sense. It was completely disjointed. The filmmakers tried to weird it up by having a couple of psychotic midgets thrown into the mix, but the result was just pathetic. There are countless scenes where bandmembers (Killer Barbys are a real band) are having sex in a van, and the baddies are hovering around, opening doors, stealing things, placing objects, yet are never even so much as noticed by the lovemakers. There are equally moronic scenes of the baddies chasing after a naked woman in the woods. She looks like she is running in slowmotion and has to keep waiting for her pursuers to catch up. Then there is some subplot involving some ancient vampiress who must drink young blood to regain her youth, yet when she does, she becomes some 65-year old had been! She is supposed to be this beauty who seduces the lead singer, yet she is easily old enough to be his grandmother!

They tried to throw in a few corpses to add to the horror, yet they were so obviously rubber it was ridiculous. One of the henchmen carries one through the castle, and you can repeatedly see him bang it against walls only to have it snap back into shape.

There are A-movie, B-movies, and then there are Killer Barby movies. This one is so bad, it doesn't even deserve a letter from the alphabet. Call it a double-Z.

Jesús Franco's late work Killer Barbys is a mixed bag to me - it got some real good fun gore and horror scenes and some schlocky, sexy fun too, but there are, sadly, some rather lengthy and boring parts too, that weaken the experience rather considerably. Anyway, Killer Barbys is still recommendable to the die-hard connoisseur of Jesús Franco's oeuvre, who just craves for new junk food, but if you are new to his work I would recommend rather other movies to enter the maestro's wonderland of trash, cheese and schlock: Count Dracula, Vampyros Lesbos, Bloody Moon, and Venus in Furs are good movies to begin your journey. Exact rate: 3.5.

A Spanish punk rock band named ¨Killer Barbys¨-actual name of the punk rock band- has a car accident while on tour. Excited about their next big gig, instead, The Killer Barbies Spanish punk rock band, have to endure a crucial setback when their rusty old van breaks down in the backwoods. Formed by five young people, two couples, Billy (Billy King) and Sharon (Angie Barea), and Rafa (Carlos Subterfuge) and Flavia (Silvia Superstar), as well as Mario (Charlie S. Chaplin). After a performance, they take a deserted road to the next concert venue, but the car falls into a hole and breaks down. With no way to fix it and lost in the middle of nowhere, they are surprised by a sinister man, the butler Arkan (Aldo Sambrell), who invites the group to spend the night in a nearby castle, owned by the mysterious Countess Von Fledermaus. Forced to spend the night at the eerie castle of Countess Von Fledermaus, the musicians soon realize that the mysterious lady's kindness hides macabre, blood-curdling schemes. As the unsuspecting musicians meander through the gloomy wilderness. Now, a centuries-old secret is about to unfold. Once staying in the old castle and while trying to get used to the gloomy atmosphere of the place, the young people are chased by a crazy killer, Baltasar (Santiago Segura), whose goal is to take the blood of the victims and use it to maintain the beauty and youth of the centenarian Countess. Then the unprotected visitors must survive the hours of darkness and the macabre threats of a mysterious contessa (Mariangela Giordano of The Night of Terror, 1981) and his underlings.

A below average film by prolific Jesús Franco, including chills, nudism, sex scenes and lots of blood and gore. This is another low-budget "exploitation" film by director Jesús Franco, with the same messy characteristics already known from his long filmography, with a script, also of his authorship, superficial and full of holes like a cheese and the same old clichés. The scenes with the band playing are very pathetic, as well as the actions of the brainless young people, who deserve to die painfully. In Killer Barbys Franco uses his artisanal trademarks, such as: zooms, nudity, close-ups on objects, making the film in the 'do it yourself' (DIY) style and managing to work extraordinarily quickly with a very low budget. This is a slightly entertaining European horror movie by packing absurd situations and cheesy frames. It's a 1996 movie, but it looks like the same thing Franco did in the 70s. So, what arouses the interest of lovers of crude horror films are the always welcome elements of gothic atmosphere, with the scary castle shrouded in thick fog, the threatening butler, the chases in a ghostly forest, the bloody deaths with mutilated bodies hanging inverted to bleed like pigs slaughtered in slaughterhouses, and the countess who keeps a diabolical secret about her eternal youth. And it is worth highlighting, among the amusing clums, the scene of death by crushing by a steamroller, produced with practical effects and far from the artificiality of computer graphics. Stars the ferocious Silvia Superstar , leader of the punk rock that had a fleeting and passing success in the nineties . The Spanish band "Killer Barbies" exists in reality and was created by vocalist and guitarist Silvia Superstar and drummer Billy King, being invited to participate in Franco's two films. But, to avoid problems with the rights to the Barbie doll brand, the band had the name slightly changed in the films to "Killer Barbys". And accompanied by two B-stars: Aldo Sambrell and Mariangela Giordano who at her 59 provides some erotic scenes, as well as Franco regulars such as: Charlie S. Chaplin, composer Daniel White and Rosa Maria Almirall or Lina Romay as film editor.

The film feature was poorly directed by prolific Spanish filmmaker Jesús Franco or Jess Frank or Uncle Jess. Jess Franco himself directed another lousy sequel in 2002 called Killer Barbys vs Dracula. This was one of director Jess Franco's final productions shot on film stock before he switched to shooting on video in the late '90s to reduce costs. Most people agreed that some of Frank's work was passable, but most were botched films. Jess was a Stakhanovite and restless writer, producer and director who made more than 200 films. His career spanned more than 50 years with some successes and many failures, making all kinds of genres: thrillers, adventures, action and with a penchant for horror and erotica. Jesús used to sign under a pseudonym, among the aliases he used besides Jess Frank or Franco Manera, were the following: Frank Hollman, David Khune, James P. Johnson, David Though, Clifford Brown, among others. He was a prolific filmmaker, directing many terrible films, as well as frequently releasing several titles at the same time. In his early days he soon applied all his knowledge and experience as an assistant director, musician, editor to his debut as a feature film director: We Are 18 Years Old (1959). His Succubus (1968) was nominated for the Berlin Film Festival, and this event gave him international reputation. His career became increasingly consolidated in the following years, and his inexhaustible creativity allowed him to tackle films of all genres, from B-series horror films to pure hardcore sex. However, he made some passable films, such as: ¨The Terrible Dr. Orloff, The Bloody Judge, Count Dracula, 99 Women, The Blood of Fumanchu, Faceless¨ and a few more. And many of them with very strong cuts and double versions. Rating 3.5/10. Inferior and below average exploitation film. Only for Jess Frank completists.

A rock band (The Killer Barbies, the title of the film was changed as not to upset Barbie) gets stranded when driving to their next show. They find a castle to stay at until their van gets fixed, but the blood-craving Countess has other plans for them. This is a terrible movie. I have never heard music by Killer Barbies, and I was annoyed to find that it was an all male band with two female singer/strippers. I was expecting a bad-ass girl band, not a Lords of Acid lite playing mall punk. Fortunately the music is sort of catchy, but it gets tiring after hearing it for an hour and a half. I'm not sure how successful Killer Barbies is in their home country or what their motives were in making this movie. An interview clip before the movie shows the lead singer saying they wanted to make the goriest movie ever (which it doesn't come close to being), but she doesn't say anything about why the band wanted to make sex scene after sex scene after sex scene. Sometimes the movie goes Scooby Doo and it is sort of amusing, but overall, this is a big waste of time. The scariest thing about "Killer Barbys," besides the godawful dubbing, is that a sequel was made! My Rating: 2/10

The rock band Killer Barbies is on tour across Spain when their van breaks down. They are invited by a dark stranger into a dark castle with a dark secret: the countess reached the age of Methusalem by drinking blood of young people. Such as... yes, rock band members. "Killer Barbys" suffers from the problems you could easily predict for a movie that is basically a mere promotion support for a band: poor acting (Aldo Sanbrell is the only exception), low budget, same old story. But it is clearly better than its sequel "Killer Barbies vs Dracula" in the whole atmosphere. The foggy castle is full of strange props like dolls without eyes, clocks, bones, barred windows... spooky! So, if you don't mind the silliness, gore and nudity, it's a "good bad flick". I dare say it even was the beginning of Jess Franco's return in the 90s when he seemed to fade away into oblivion.

On viewing this film I had no idea that The Barbies were an actual band and after reading the reviews on this site I've changed my view of the film - it's even worse than I first thought.

I realise that these type of low budget/high gore flicks don't rely heavily on intense story lines or complex characterisations but that is still no excuse for not making an effort. The daylight filming, the obvious plastic bodies and the appalling dubbing, can probably be ignored by most people but for me it just killed the film stone dead. There is no atmosphere to speak of (which I think is essential for any `horror' film), the story line is mechanical and basically what you end up with is a teenager's version of a Scooby Doo episode.

Only watch if you like films with large quantities of fake fog and Barbie dolls. 1/10

Killer Barbys (1996) was a vanity piece disguised as an old creepy horror film used to promote the Spanish punk-pop band THE KILLER BARBIES. The band is fronted by the hot Silvia Superstar. A lot of the band's music is played during the movie. Two of the actually band members appear in the film (Silvia Superstar and her boyfriend co-founder/Drummer Billy King). Jesus Franco creates a creepy old school horror film around the band.

The band is cruising the back roads of Spain heading towards another gig. But the band never makes it to the other town before nightfall. Their van has broken down and they need to find a place that has a telephone. Three of the band members leave the broken down vehicle to look for help. What luck the band has. They come across an old castle. Inside they find an elderly gentleman who offers them a place for the night will he calls a tow truck. Silvia has her suspicions about the place and the people that dwell within it. The countess (the owner of the castle) wants them to stay for dinner. Will Silvia and her band mates take the middle aged woman's offer. How will the two band members who stayed behind fare? Why was the elderly host acting peculiar? To find out you' ll just have to watch KILLER BARBYS!!

A fun film that doesn't try to be something it's not. If you're into vanity projects or some old school horror then you'll want to watch KILLER BARBYS. Silvia Superstar is hot and I hope you'll agree with me fellas! En espanol with English sub-titles.

Highly recommended.

Jess Franco's "Killer Barbys" is to the band The Killer Barbies what Aki Kaurismäki's "Leningrad Cowboys go to America" was to the Leningrad Cowboys. Both are movies starring an existing band and both are typical products of the directors. Kaurismäki is known for his deadpan black humor presented in films totally weirding you out and "Leningrad Cowboys go to America" is a weird and funny tale of the Leningrad Cowboys going to America. Franco is known for erotic horror movies and "Killer Barbys" is a mix of horny rockers and cannibalists.

But there's more. Kaurismäki made a sequel, "Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses", an attempt to make the worst movie ever. To a certain degree he succeeds in doing so. Franco's "Killer Barbys" doesn't try to do so, but it's difficult not to see how many horror cliches you can see in this film: at night you hear the sound of wearwolves, it's often twelve o'clock, there's cannibalism, there are some dwarves, most of the rockers constantly want sex, a semi-naked girl is being chased in the woods, there's lot of blood and someone even ends up being crushed. How much gore can you get into one movie?

But movies like "Killer Barbys" and "Leningrad Cowboys" never meant to be original. They are mainly there to let you know the band exists. And if anything they are much more enjoyable than your average rockumentary. And even though Franco made lots of no-budget movies where anyone can see through the special effects, I suspect him here of making the effects as bad as possible (if you can't see that the dead bodies are dummies, you desperately need to get your eyes checked.)

It is true that Franco could have tried harder and that the movie could have been better, but it's common knowledge that Franco's best movies can't be found in the nineties. Most of those movies are even badly acted, so it's very ironic to realise that two rockers act better than Franco's cast of regulars (Lina Romay, Linnea Quigley, ...). "Killer Barbys" is the only decent movie Franco recently made, so if you want to see some of his later work, this is the best choice you can make. As long as you remember it's a Frankenstein experiment of combining gore and rockumentaries.

By the way "Love Killer" is a nice song.

The Killer Barbies van breaks down so they have to stay at a castle owned by a woman who bathes in blood and semen. Less of an actual movie than an overlong music video. This is quite the chore to get through. Horrid acting, boring clichéd lackluster plot, lame special effects, and a general putrid stench all add up to a horrible experience... even for a Jess Franco film (Franco fans, are of a different breed and have a much MUCH higher tolerance for cinematic crap) Followed by a (why god? WHY???!!??) sequel.

My Grade: F

DVD Extras: Intro & Scene specific commentary by the band; Talent Bios; Band interview; Movie review; 2 Music videos by 'the Killer Barbies'; Lobby card gallery; Jump to a scream option; and Trailers for "Jungle Holocaust", "Eaten Alive", "Beyond the Darkness", & "Burial Ground"

Easter Egg: Intro outtakes & CD promo

In KILLER BARBYS, the rock band of the same name -led by Flavia (Sylvia Superstar)- happen upon a remote castle after their vehicle breaks down.

Said castle is the home of an ancient Countess (Mariangela Giordano) who happens to be a vampire, and she's very thirsty! It's not long before our heroes are being killed off by The Countess' henchman and his eeevil dwarfs!

KILLER BARBYS is another wonky, erotic spook-fest from Director Jess Franco. It contains the requisite gore, nudity, and a semi-cohesive story line.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The Countess! She's hot, ruthless, and downright animalistic!

Gorehounds will want to stick around for the death-by-steamroller denouement...

While driving on tour late night through a lonely road in the countryside of Spain, the van of the punk band Killer Barbies has an accident and breaks down. A creepy old man invites the group to spend the night in the castle of Countess Von Fledermaus and presents himself as her secretary Arkan.

How many times can you play the same terrible song in one movie? I lost count after a while. Are the Barbies a good band? I have no idea. Maybe. Maybe not. If I got to hear more of their music and not just the one or two tracks, I could better decide. So if this film was some sort of promotional deal for them, it did not work on me.

The one good thing about the movie? It had midgets. And that is the only thing making this film get a 2 rather than a 1 in my book.

Jess Franco made a lot of bad films in his career, and this has to be one of the worst. The film features the questionable talents of Spanish punk band 'Killer Barbies', and attempts to build a plot around them. It's obvious that scriptwriters Jesus Franco and Patxi Irigoyen couldn't really be bothered to think of a decent story, so we've got the all too familiar idea of someone trying to regenerate their youth with the help of blood from the living. Don't get me wrong, this is a good idea and has lead to many great horror films; but here it's not very used, and it all feels very pointless indeed. Naturally, there's a fair amount of blood and gore on display, but it's not enough to make up for the many bad elements of the film. The dubbing is particularly atrocious, and at times there are voices when the characters' mouths aren't even moving! The band themselves don't manage to present themselves as interesting characters, and it's easy to want them to get picked off as quickly as possible. The atmosphere is decent enough, and the central location; an old dark house provides a decent setting, and is the only good thing about this film. The song that the band sings isn't terrible, and to be honest I'd rather Franco have filmed one of their concerts than this film. Overall, Killer Barbys isn't worth seeing and you'd have thought that by 1996; a man that had already made well over a hundred films could have done better. Avoid.

I'd been warned this was bad before I watched it, but nothing could prepare me for just HOW bad! If this was made by some nameless hack I would have watched it and immediately forgotten about it, but as it's directed by Jess Franco, the man responsible for cult favourites like 'Vampyros Lesbos', 'Succubus', 'Eugenie De Sade', 'A Virgin Among The Living Dead', 'Sadisterotica' and 'Faceless', I couldn't help but be a little depressed... 'Killer Barbys' is absolute garbage any way you look at it and a sad low point for Franco. It's very hard to think of one good thing to say about it. Okay, The Barbies lead singer Silvia Superstar is pretty hot and their song 'Love Killer' isn't bad and rocks in a similar way to The Muffs or The Donnas. That's about it for praise. Apart from that, this movie stinks. Franco has done wonders on minimal budgets before in his long career, so that's no excuse for how poor this is. There are some talented people in the cast too - spaghetti western regular Aldo Sambrell, who will be a familiar face to Sergio Leone fans, co-star of the wonderful 'The Day Of The Beast' Santiago Segura, and Mariangela Giordano ('The Sect'). But the script is awful, the special effects lame, and the dubbing on the DVD I watched atrocious. If you hold Jess Franco in high esteem like I do, it's best to avoid this rubbish. You'll just feel cheated and sad. Highly UNrecommended!