After completing his revenge epic Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino embarked on one of the best projects of his career. Together with his fellow director Robert Rodriguez, he wanted to bring the grindhouse cinema of the 1970s back to life and designed one bloody double featurewhich is made up of the action thriller Death Proof and the zombie film Planet Terror.
To perfect the homage, five trailers were made that teased other exploitation films, even though they didn’t exist when they were released in 2007. The response was so great that this week, Thanksgiving, the third fake trailer will be given a real film. Previously released were Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun. However, one of the trailers is avoided:
Werewolf Women of the SS.
Werewolf Women of the SS promises Naziploitation with Nicolas Cage as Dr. Fu Manchu
It is by far the most bizarre fake trailer that was created during Grindhouse. Director Rob Zombie, who at the time had absolutely depraved horror films like House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects and brought his Halloween remake to the cinema, is responsible for this five minute video responsible, kidnapped into the Second World War and told of dark Nazi experiments.
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Udo Kier as Franz Hess in Werewolf Women of the SS
At the center of the story of Werewolf Women of the SS is Commander Franz Hess, played by Udo Kier, who does everything in Death Camp 13 to create the Übermensch. Between flashes of light in the laboratory and a cabaret performance, there is plenty Violence and sexmixed with a good dose of sadism and torture – all the distinctive features of a so-called Naziploitation film combined.
The title of the trailer clearly names the great role model in cinema history: Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS from 1975. The subgenre of the exploitation film was inspired by daring auteur film masterpieces such as The Damned, The Night Porter and The 120 Days of Sodom inspired. As if Naziploitation wasn’t enough, Rob Zombie mixes in a character characterized by racist prejudices: Dr. Fu Manchuplayed by Nicolas Cage.
Werewolf Women of the SS would push the boundaries of good taste as a movie
Werewolf Women of the SS brings together everything that cannot be shown in the cinema without hesitation. That’s exactly what the fake trailer does in terms of that Grindhouse’s pop culture legacy so interesting. Where Machete, Hobo and Thanksgiving were transformed into film projects perfectly tailored to Tarantino fans, resistance can still be felt here 16 years later.
Universe Film/Senator
Nicholas Cage as Dr. Fu Manchu in Werewolf Women of the SS
With Dead Snow, Iron Sky and Frankenstein’s Army, there have certainly been films in recent years that were inspired by the aesthetics of Naziploitation cinema. However, none of the mentioned further developments in the genre have come close dared to cross borders, simmering in Rob Zombie’s fake trailer. But it was precisely this shameless provocation that was the project’s greatest appeal.
How far do they really go?
Despite the success story of five fake trailers becoming three full-length feature films, this question has to be answered with “not very far”. It is significant that, alongside the creative mastermind Edgar Wright (Fake Trailer: Don’t), the very director who was already in the spotlight with his films was never able to shoot his film version corrupted soul of cinema who looked: Rob Zombie.
The fake trailer machine continues to produce diligently without getting involved in the strangeness of its origins
Machete and Co. have released films that can hardly hold a candle to the raw, rough character of their cinematic counterparts. Zombie, on the other hand, has proven that he himself has one in one of the most iconic slasher series stage real outliers can. Halloween II from 2009 unfolds beyond good and evil in disturbing nightmare images that you won’t soon forget.
Whether Werewolf Women of the SS could be a good film is of course questionable. But the crucial point is that the risk of implementing it is obviously too great. The love letter to grindhouse cinema in all its absurdity has become a quasi-franchise just as few dares as Marvel and co. The brand is maintained, but no one dares to follow through with the original idea.
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