<p> <em>Screaming in High Heels: The Rise & Fall of the Scream Queen Era</em> (out on DVD) is an entertaining, interesting documentary of a deservedly disrespected 1980s movie genrealbeit the participants in the film would beg to differ over “deservedly.” The movie focuses on a trio of young women who became the dominant faces of the sub-B horror flicks cranked out by the gross on slender budgets and thinner shooting schedules. Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer all hailed from small towns and were captivated by Shock Theater reruns of old horror. They drifted down their separate paths to Los Angeles, fell into the seamy side of modeling and moved horizontally into low budget slashers with such titles as <em>Psycho from Texas</em>, <em>Slumber Party Massacre</em> and <em>Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity</em>. </p> <p>“I was pretty and people liked to see me chopped up,” explains Quigley. And that unfortunately sums up the appeal of many of these movies. The worst seem nothing more than wacko boy rape fantasies, although in some cases the girls got their comeuppance. Some can be regarded as humorous riffs on better-known exploitation movies. Virtually all were less prurient than puerile. “We were just having fun,” is the blanket explanation of the directors interviewed for <em>Screaming</em>. The potential negatives are unexplored except for the acknowledgment that the fan con circuit supporting the genre had its dark side. Several of the genre's lesser starlets were stalked and at least one was murdered.</p> <p> On the other hand, one could admire the work ethic and determination. Quigely, Brinke and Bauer performed in dozens of movies each year and since all were shot on film, a modicum of craft was involved. <em>Screaming</em> covers the genre's drive-in prehistory well and discusses how outdoor cinema vanished in the face of video stores, whose proliferation in the early '80s opened an enormous and profitable market for indie genre filmmakers. Why the <em>Fall of the Scream Queen Era</em>? The triumph of Blockbuster and other chains shut out indie product in favor of the majors. And in any event the market may have gotten glutted. The scream queens and several of their directors harrumph about the ill effects of bandwagon jumping non-talentsactresses utterly devoid of talent and the directors who pointed cheap digital cameras at them. </p> <p><em>Screaming in High Heels</em> has Wisconsin ties in the form of Quigley, who came from Prairie du Chien, and the documentary's director Jason Paul Collum, from Racine. </p>
