After watching Pit Stop (which you can read about my thoughts of the film here) by Jack Hill, I ventured into my pile of Arrow Films blurays and picked another title out that I hadn’t seen but had bought many months ago. That film was Switchblade Sisters and turns out also is a Jack Hill directed film. Yet another gem from Jack Hill. Switchblade Sisters is from 1975 and takes us into the world of teenage gang members in an area of Los Angeles and their battles with the ‘law’ and in many cases each other. Switchblade Sisters is a ton of fun and the best way to describe it is, imagine a film where you take the muggers from Death Wish and give them their own film, but tone down the brutality a bit. Perhaps that’s a bit of a simplification but that’s a rough idea of what you’ll get with Switchblade Sisters.  Yes the teens look like they are actually in their mid to late 20s in some cases, but so what. It does require a bit of suspended belief but then again so does pretty much any film to a certain extent. Yes the film is over the top in many ways but that is half the appeal of the film for me. Silly escapism and I loved it.

I hadn’t realised that I was a fan of Jack Hills, but over the past year or so, having seen Coffy, Foxy Brown, Pit Stop, and now Switchblade Sisters, I am definitely a Jack Hill fan. So if you like your 70s exploitation  movies, then I would highly recommend Switchblade Sisters. its fun, yes its very 70s so don’t expect too much political correctness or equality between women and men but this film is a fun movie to watch if you want a snapshot of the 70s cinema landscape.

Now that Ive seen the film, ill soon head into the special features on the bluray to which there are many.

Brand new audio commentary by historians/critics Samm Deighan & Kat Ellinger 

We Are The Jezebels, an archival documentary featuring director Jack Hill, producer John Prizer, casting director Geno Havans, production designer B.B. Neel, stunt coordinator Bob Minor, and stars Joanne Nail, Asher Brauner, and Chase Newhart

Gangland: The locations of Switchblade Sisters, an archival documentary in which Jack Hill and filmmaker Elijah Drenner revisit the shooting locations of Switchblade Sisters 

Jack Hill and Joanne Nail at the Grindhouse Film Festival, a 2007 archival interview with the director and actor 

Interview with Jack Hill, Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail, an archival 1990’s interview with the director and stars in conversation with Johnny Legend 

Galleries of behind the scenes stills, international posters, video covers, and lobby cards