Death Bitch

Revenge is a very powerful tool but it can also be dangerous. If you want to revenge someone for something they did towards you personally or someone you love, think about what you are doing. Even if you may pursue with your revenge plan because of what happened in the past, it may not help you heal your wounds completely. I can completely understand if you want to revenge someone if you are a victim, we don´t always trust the justice system. But at the end of the day using revenge may make your future a living hell if things go terribly wrong. When it comes to revenge stories we have seen a lot of films in the past taking on the subject in many different categories. You have revenge action films where some of them are seen as classics and of course there are also some great horror revenge films as well. One of my personal favourite revenge films from the past is the 1974 action revenge film Death Wish from legendary director Michael Winner ( who directed 3 other classic Charles Bronson films as well such as The Mechanic, Chato´s Land and The Stone Killer ). Death Wish tell the story of New York architect Paul Kersey ( played by action legend Charles Bronson ) who lives in Manhattan with his wife, Joanna Kersey ( Hope Lang ), and their adult daughter, Carol Kersey ( Kathleen Tolan ). One day while Joanna and Carol arrange home delivery from the grocery store, three muggers find their adress and decides to break in. Joanna is brutally killed while her daughter Carol is sexually assaulted. Paul´s life completely falls apart and he decides to arm himself and shoot down criminals on the streets of New York to revenge the death of his wife and his daughter being scarred for life. Death Wish is a very simple but effective action film where legendary actor Charles Bronson does a great performance as Paul Kersey. There are 4 more sequels of the Death Wish franchise and i do enjoy some of them but the original film is definetely the best. Well worth checking out on DVD or Blu Ray if you love physical movies just like myself. Speaking of revenge films i recently got a chance to watch a brand new action movie called Death Bitch where you could tell this is a revenge inspired story. Since i am a big fan of revenge action films i simply had to check out Death Bitch to see if the title matched as well as i hoped. Is this one of the better revenge films in recent years or is Death Bitch a film that doesn´t have as big balls as i hoped it would have?

Alexis Walker ( Linnea Swanson ) lost her brother and mother in a home invasion. Struggling with the loss of her belived family members Alexis becomes a vigilante and decides to take out criminals all across the city. While the city experience a vigilante there also seems to be a serial killer out there known as The South Bay Slasher.

It comes to no suprise that Death Bitch knows what kind of audience this film was made for. This is a film that is clearly made for fans of independent action films who appreciate classic action ingredients, plenty of violence and doesn´t hold back on rough language. In some ways you can say there are some similar ideas here to the 1974 classic Death Wish although the plot is completely different. The revenge story itself is pretty simple and if you are looking for a film that doesn´t feel complicated or follow any specific trends and feels more like a throwback to VHS action films of the past then Death Bitch should definetely please you. So what do i appreciate about this film? I feel that the main actress Linnea Swanson gives her vigilante character Alexis a certain style that matches her angry approach while she execute criminals across town, similar to what Charles Bronson did in Death Watch. One of my personal favourite characters in Death Bitch is definetely Detective Maddy played by actress Traci Burr ( who i recognized from the independent horror film Hell Of The Screaming Dead that also included legendary actor Mel Novak ). The character of Detective Maddy matches so well in this film that she actually steal the show in certain scenes. Not only does this character look cool on screen but i do feel that Traci deliver her dialogue smoothly. Even if you can tell that the kills are not very brutal in certain scenes, i do feel that the execution scenes is a important detail to make the revenge plot more effective. So now to my negative thoughts and i have to say that i would have liked this film to be more brutal. Imagine if we saw main character Alexis empty even more bullets and we see all that blood flushing out, that´s my kind of revenge film. I think if Death Bitch would have shown a lot more bloody violence it would have been more effective. At the end of the day this is still an action film that´s made with passion for old school action cinema. Death Bitch lands somwhere between classics such as Death Wish and the Jennifer Garner revenge film Peppermint while making it´s own impact especially with a great female cast. If you are fed up with another Jennifer Lopez wedding film ( how many have she made now? ) and just want women to kick ass then this is the film for you. Death Bitch shows that not all women love wedding magazines and rather have some fun instead with lots of bullets included. Director Ken Brewer clearly loves classic revenge stories and he deliver a film that VHS action nerds like myself will appreciate.

Rating: DDD