TICKED-OFF TRANNIES WITH KNIVES

"Never bend your head. Hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye".

The above quote is from famous political activist Helen Keller and opens writer-director Israel Luna's fourth feature in deceptively earnest fashion.

The action begins in a lively, red-hued gay club where huge Divine-alike hostess Pinky (Kelexis Davenport) introduces her girls onto the stage for the benefit of the hollering audience: big-titted blonde Tipper (Jenna Skyy), svelte brunette Emma (Erica Andrews), wild and curly Rachel (William Belli), and the comparatively vulnerable-looking Bubbles (Krystal Summers).

Chapter one of the film gives us some brief background on the girls as they enjoy light banter around their jobs, sex-lives and more. Only Bubbles' black eye (a mystery to the others) and the mention of a new fellow on the scene called Nacho (Kenny Ochoa) threaten to kill the tone.

Within minutes the plot has raced along to a post-gig bar where the girls enjoy an after-hours drink while discussing the nature of being gay. The chat remains light and the one-liners snappy as we get to know this fundamentally decent group of people.

But then Nacho and another scuzzball turn up saying they have a friend waiting at home and offer to meet three of the girls back at their abode for more fun. Worse for wear through drink, Rachel and Emma drag designated driver Bubbles along with them to meet the trio of "super cute" blokes. As reluctant as she is, Bubbles agrees to stick around for one drink - purely for the sake of her horny friends.

This third chapter is entitled "Boo". Not a good sign. Indeed, the girls walk straight into an ambush - the third guy is the disgruntled Boner (Tom Zembrod) who gave Bubbles a shiner earlier in the night. It turns out he was a one-night-stand who is furious that he was duped into thinking he was getting off with a "real" woman.

Not content with having earlier raped and hit Bubbles, he's now brandishing a wooden bat - and wants to vent his anger on her. Despite Rachel and Emma's best efforts to fight off their aggressors, the three girls take a good hiding.

Enter Tipper and Pinky, who receive a distress call from Bubbles and manage to track her mobile telephone signal ...

Luna's film is darker in tone here than its title would suggest, and becomes surprisingly involving once the jokes subside and the first attack gets underway. Music and camerawork quickly bring the film into horror territory, offering truly unsettling images as things get bloody; Boner's pursuit of Bubbles through an abandoned warehouse is extremely well done, utilising tense edits and Argentoesque lighting to great effect.

Now, following on from an impressively prolonged fight sequence that is equal parts amusing, well-staged and gory, there is a missing reel ... so it's straight to chapter five next: "Poo Poo Platter Tuesday".

This allows for the action to shift forward several months and sees Pinky meeting Rachel in a hospital ward, where they're preparing to see Bubbles - who has just woken from a coma. Still heavily bruised, Bubbles has temporarily lost the power of speech, for no other reason it would seem than to provide an excuse for some really atrocious body comedy and cheap gags about the sexy hospital staff.

Anyway, a bit of dodgy comedy later, and the film finally gets back on track as the surviving transsexual trio vow to avenge the deaths of their dead friends ...

Although painfully indebted stylistically to the Grindhouse films, what with its overly considered warm colour schemes, Tarantinoesque chapters, doctored onscreen wear-and-tear and occasional jumping frames (not to mention that "missing reel"), TRANNIES at least works as entertainment.

The comedy is weak. One foray into the forest with mentor Fergus (Richard D Curtin) is particularly bad. Like, Alternative Cinema bad. The cast are willing but not greatly able, and Luna's script falters from acerbic one-liners after the first 20 minutes - thus rendering the remaining humour as less John Waters and more Broken Lizard.

Where the film works best is in the impressive cinematography of Jamie Moreno and Luna's skill at eliciting tension in the film's darker moments. It's just a shame the tone is so uneven overall as this could've been a great little exploitation thriller, albeit with a rather novel spin to it.

The screener disc proffered by Breaking Glass presented the film uncut in 16x9 widescreen. The transfer was very good, boasting strong colours and sharp images. Detail is good, despite deliberate scratches and manufactured grain on the screen.

English audio was provided in 2.0 and sounded very good throughout.

There were no extras or menus on the disc, but I can reveal that the retail disc - set for release on November 9th 2010 - will include 5.1 audio, a blooper reel, the missing reel that makes up chapter four, a Behind The Scenes featurette, and a commentary track from Luna, Belli and Summers.

An intriguing concept, an enthusiastic cast and a clearly talented director mark TICKED-OFF TRANNIES WITH KNIVES out as a film with a fair amount of merit. But that dumb title is there for a reason: awful comedy replaces barbed humour as the plot progresses, and is curiously at loggerheads with the ugly violence and tense horror sequences.

Still, the film qualifies as something truly different and for that reason it gets a thumbs up. I'd like to see what Luna does next (and hope he's not too proud to consider directing from someone else's script next time).

Review by Stuart Willis