Though I'm sometimes a little harsh on his movies, and am quick to be critical of his modern day output, I do admire Fred Olen Ray. Here's a guy who, back during the home video boom of the early 80s, set out to make low-budget movies and turned it into a long lasting career. Just looking at his IMDB page he's credited as director on over 100 titles - that's crazy! Along with Jim Wynorski, Ray is really the only B-movie pro from my youth who's still working with great regularity. I have to commend him for this since the landscape has certainly changed (generally for the worse, in my opinion) over the years.

Obviously a quickly cranked out ode to low-budget filmmaking, Bad Girls from Mars is one of Ray's lesser efforts and has that thrown together feeling throughout, but I did get some mild enjoyment from the flick's self-deprecating attitude and a few scattered chuckles at random moments. This is cheap, with mild charms, but really only for his fans.

There's so many nods to drive-in movies here, I couldn't help but smile right away as the tongue-in-cheek voice over introduction lets us know we'll be hearing a foghorn sound anytime bare breasts appear on screen (and, trust me, this happens a lot!). We're then transported to the set of the crappy sci-fi movie of the title where washed-up lead actor, and apparent stud, Rich (Jay Richardson) is being harassed by horny alien babes from Mars who tell him, "There's no room on Mars for limp dicks".

Amongst all these cheesy shenanigans, and b-movie production jokes, our bimbo-like actresses start getting killed off by a masked killer who starts out by hanging one of them using a strip of celluloid film and goes from there. At the same time, the producers have called in European sexpot Emanuelle (Edy Williams) to try and bring some "class" to their flick and compensate for their shrinking cast. This leads to all sorts of randomness as Emanuelle changes outfits during a ride in a convertible, an inept detective shows up to try and uncover the murder's identity and add a pointless mystery element, there's a pretty funny scene with convenience store thieves who decide things by playing "paper, rock, scissors" (played by director Ray and his co-writer Mark Thomas McGee), a running joke involving people talking with their mouths stuffed with food, Williams cavorting around in a towel, some dull sex scenes, a topless cat fight, and a finale that trots out an obvious killer and has Emanuelle talking to the camera a whole bunch. Also on hand is 80s Scream Queen Brinke Stevens, playing the movie's costume girl and Rich's girlfriend Myra.

Given Ray's pedigree I expected Bad Girls from Mars to be funnier. Sure, he's thrown in tons of winks towards past flicks and he delivers on the nudity front, but I just felt myself getting a little bored during its 81 minute runtime. I generally enjoy these types of flicks (Brutal Massacre pops to mind) and did laugh a few times but by the time it was over I felt worn out.

At once a classic beauty, Williams doesn't seem to be doing anything more than slumming here and gives the worst performance in a cast filled with wooden ones. Ray knows her appeal is her over-sized boobs and goes with it and you really can't be too judgmental on her since she did previously appear in Chained Heat and Hollywood Hot Tubs. Stevens is simply adding another stinker to her resume and doesn't even doff the duds. It's Ray regular, Richardson, who steals the show here, giving Rich just enough smirk and sarcasm to be strangely likeable.

Having been on a B-movie kick recently, and remembering renting this on VHS back when I was a horny teenager, I decided to give Bad Girls from Mars a go when seeing it on Netflix. I kind of wish I didn't. As I said before, if you're a fan of Ray then give this a look but, if you're curious about him, then you'd be better off with Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (his most famous effort, I'd say) or one of his various silly 80s action flicks (Cyclone, Armed Response). (Chris Hartley, 5/14/13)

Directed By: Fred Olen Ray.
Written By: Mark Thomas McGee, Sherman Scott (Ray).

Starring: Edy Williams, Oliver Darrow, Brinke Stevens, Jay Richardson.