Filthy Review - 'Strippers vs. Werewolves'

Strippers vs. Werewolves (2012)

Review by Jude Felton

With a title such as Strippers vs. Werewolves you will certainly hope to get a little bit of both. Hell, we had Zombie Strippers a few years back, which starred Robert Englund who pops up here for one scene, so why the hell not have them fighting werewolves? It could work, right? Well, director Jonathan Glendening makes a good fist of it, even if the film doesn’t fire with both barrels of its silver bullet-loaded shotgun.

The film opens in the sunny badlands of Basildon, Essex, with the SilverDollaz club being obliterated in an explosion. The film then shifts forward a few years, to the Vixens club in London. Inside the club, Justice is performing for a guest, played by ex-Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp. Before long he gets a little excited and transforms into a wolf. Justice, being a stripper of means, whips out a conveniently placed pen and stabs him in the eye. To add to further convenience, the pen happens to be silver. Job done, without even knowing it.

As it turns out, the owner of Vixens happens to have had a run in with werewolves in the past, so she isn’t too taken aback by this turn of events, and gets the plan in motion to dispose of the body.

Unbeknownst to Justice though, her fiancé is also a werewolf and his pack is out looking for their fallen comrade. All of this, in a roundabout way, sets the scene for the eventual turn of events that is sold by the films’ title. Oh, you can also throw into the mix a seemingly clueless Van Helsing style character for some undead disposal advice.

Strippers vs. Werewolves knows exactly what it is; and that is big dumb ridiculous fun. Well, it is for the most part anyway. Hell, one of the characters even says that “a film doesn’t need to be art to be fun”, and Strippers vs. Werewolves is not art, and this seems to be carried through by the actors into the film itself. This is not a film that takes itself seriously, and I didn’t while I was watching it.

A lot of the cast and crew have appeared in, or worked behind the scenes, in other recent British movies such as Airborne and The Rise and Fall of a White Collar Hooligan, so you get the likes of Alan Ford, Billy Murray, Simon Phillips and Nick Nevern all turning up in roles of varying screen time. Phillips is by far the most entertaining in his role as Sinclair, the aforementioned Van Helsing type.

On the stripper front you get former Emmerdale star Adele Silva as Justice, with back up from Barbara (Hostel) Nedeljakova amongst others, and they are all okay in their roles. As is usually the case the bad guys, or werewolves as they are here, all have the best lines. Then you get Robert Englund, who turns up for the one scene and seems to have fun with what he has to do.

Strippers vs. Werewolves is fairly low budget, for sure, but it still has a good look about it. It’s definitely not a hatchet job by a couple of hacks with camcorders. The werewolves themselves lean towards the humorous, in terms of their appearance, and the strippers could have stripped a little more ha-ha! Sure, there is some bared flesh here, but if you’re going to put strippers in your films title, you better have them strip!

As for guts and gore; there is a fair smattering here and there, although when it comes down to the films’ climax I was a little underwhelmed. Saying that though, the mix of humor and horror towards the end was actually pretty good.

Overall, Strippers vs. Werewolves is dumb fun. It’s not perfect, but it is called Strippers vs. Werewolves, so don’t go into it expecting serious horror. If you go in expecting a daft flick, that is just as much about the laughs as it is the horror, you will probably get more out of it. Hell, it is positively Citizen Kane when compared to Piranha 3DD.

Strippers vs. Werewolves is released on September 25th on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from Well Go USA. 

To win a copy of Strippers vs. Werewolves on Blu check out the giveaway here.