Review: 'Invasion of the Scream Queens'

Title: INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS
Year: 1992
Director: Donald Farmer
Starring: Brinke Stevens, Mary Woronov, Melissa Moore, Michelle Baurer, Elizabeth Kaitan, Janus Blythe

I’ve been on quite the documentary kick lately so how fitting that Wild Eye Releasing just recently rescued INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS and released in on DVD for the first time as a Special 20th Anniversary Edition? Quite fitting if you ask me!

INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS was shot in the early 90’s by director Donald Farmer when shot-on-video horror was booming. The documentary sits down with a bunch of female genre stars as they all share stories about how they got into horror, what they love about it and what some of their favorite memories are. It’s a lot of fun to hear a first-hand account from the stars of so many of the movies that we genre geeks adore so much.

Each of the women they talk to are interesting by my favorite hands down is Janus Blythe. Hearing her stories about working on THE HILLS HAVE EYES is incredible to say the least. It’s basically an oral history on the horror genre at the time.

A lot of the names you would expect to hear are tossed around by the girls. Whether it by Roger Corman or Fred Olen Ray or David DeCouteau, they’re all shown their fair share of love by these wonderful actresses who are clearly appreciative to have worked with them.

Watching this documentary some twenty plus years after it was originally released offers a little extra appeal as well. INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS is basically like looking through a window that takes us back to 20 years to a time in B-movie history that is likely to never be duplicating. Plenty of documentaries have come out on the history of B-movies, but this is actually from the era itself making it all the more exciting.

I watched an online screening link of the film so the DVD may be different, but the online link actually felt like I was watching a VHS. Basically this looks to be a straight transfer from the VHS, which is to be expected because I assume this was shot-on-video. The quality isn’t the greatest and there were times when it looked like I need to adjust my tracking. I think this is a plus for the material. I know we live in a time when everyone wants everything in HD, but a lot of us grew up watching these movies on VHS. Seeing the stars of the movies talk about those movies in a similar presentation brings back a lot of good memories.

Not wanting to settle with only interviews, INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS does also include a bunch of clips and trailers in between and during interviews. This is what really brings everything together. I’m a sucker for old trailers so tossing some in here really pushes this over the top.

INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS is an absolute must for B-movie fans. It’s not the best put together documentary. Hell, I’m not sure any of it was even edited. More than likely all the video footage was just thrown together. That’s precisely why we love it though. The fact that it’s unpolished, much like the films these ladies all starred in, is what gives it that charm. Trust me, if you’re reading this review, you’ll like INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS.

Rating: 4/5

*INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS is now available on DVD from Wild Eye Releasing. Please visit WildEyeReleasing.com for more information.