Aliens: Star Slammer

Another installment from illustrator, lover of film, and occasional Tape Freaks contributor Izzi Xiques.

Star Slammer (also known as Prison Ship) is Fred Olen Ray's very late contribution to the women-in-prison genre that was all the b-movie rage in the mid 70’s. And although aliens do come into play, they're not the most interesting parts of this movie. The action gets going when the prison's sadistic-dominatrix warden lets a marauding gang (lead by a man who hallucinates space wizards) onto the prison ship. The gang's looking to exact revenge on one of the prison's newest inmates, Taura. She was incarcerated after burning the hand of the not-so-lucid gang leader in order to stop him from raping her. Learning that the gang is on board the ship, Taura plans a mass prison break where she'll have to fight fellow inmates, rabid aliens, as well as the patriarchy. And she does all this in full 80s active wear!

Now that all sounds great already, but to truly appreciate any of Fred Olen Ray movies, you have to understand that he took low-budget movie making to the next level. Olen Ray used the majority of his original budget to rent Roger Corman's New World studio (though, the "Pope of Pop Cinema" was not involved in making this flick) for two weekends. Utilizing Corman's tactic of using sets, props, and costumes for multiple projects at once, Olen Ray used three of his shooting days to film a large part of Star Slammer, and the other day to film scenes for an entirely different movie on the same set. All he needed to complete Star Slammer was someone who could finance the last part of the film; enter Jack H. Harris (producer of the 1958 and 1988 The Blob). With new financing, they shot the rest of the film using sets built in an abandon grocery store while employing money saving tactics like using Olen Ray's seven year old son Christopher in multiple roles. But for a quickly shot, T&A movie with a tiny budget (around $175,00), it's still a good looking film thanks to a director who takes even his schlockiest projects seriously, and who hires people who do the same. 

In the credits of Star Slammer, there was promise of the return of Taura in a future film which was never made, but even though this sleazy film is pretty great: I think better that this is a stand alone film.