Pinup Dolls on Ice uncut

Blu-ray Review

Pinup Dolls on Ice Blu-ray Review Cover
Donau Film/AL!VE, seit 18.09.2015

OT: Pinup Dolls on Ice

 


Interview mit Co-Regisseurin Melissa Mira

Manchmal ist die Welt ein Dorf. So wie in diesem Fall:
Kurz nachdem das Review von Pinup Dolls on Ice online ging und in einige Plattformen verlinkt wurde, wurde Mitregisseurin und Hauptdarstellerin Melissa Mira darauf aufmerksam und nutzte ihre eigenen Kanäle in sozialen Netzwerken, um ihre Follower darauf aufmerksam zu machen. Eins kam zum anderen und kurze Zeit später ergab sich ein wirklich netter und sehr unkomplizierter Chat, aus dem heraus das nun folgende Interview resultierte. Dieses gebe ich zum einen ungekürzt und vor allem im Original wieder, denn den enthaltenen Wortwitz hätte ich bei einer Übersetzung ins Deutsche nur unnötig kastriert. Wer direkt zum Review des Films (weiter unten) möchte, der möge bitte einfach ein wenig runterscrollen …

Dem Rest wünsche ich genauso viel Spaß beim Lesen, wie ich ihn hatte:

– So first of all i’m curious about how you came to the project. The first „on Ice“-movie was also directed by Geoff Klein, your companion on „Pinup Dolls on Ice“. But how did you get involved?

I actually came on board because Geoff had mentioned to me that he was itching to get back on set and shoot the sequel to Bikini Girls on Ice. At that time, we had just started dating and I hadn’t even seen Bikini Girls on Ice and every time he spoke about the film I thought that the whole idea of him shooting a film was cool and that he had probably shot it over a weekend with a bunch of friends in his backyard. Then, he invited me to a screening at a local theatre in our city. I was so impressed that it actually looked like a „real movie“! Forget the fact that the film is nothing revolutionary; I was just amazed that Geoff had been able to pull it off and make me believe that I was watching a “real film“ – it had nothing to do with the backyard film I thought he had shot. After the screening, we started talking and I told him that even though the film had its challenges, it definitely opened the door for something awesome. I told him that if he wanted to shoot the sequel, I was going to help him. So, to answer your question, I came on board because I just decided that I was going to support my boyfriend in the pursuit of his passion; filmmaking. I had no prior experience in the industry, not even film studies; just a lot of guts.

BGOI-FIlms-INC-Logo– How long did it take to cast the film and then to shoot it? What was the estimated budget?

Well, in case you didn’t know, we live in Montreal, Quebec where French is a very predominant language. We had somewhat of a difficult time finding girls that could speak English without an accent! We had to outsource, so we posted a few ads on various online casting websites and we had a lot of girls auditioning from all over the world. Once the accent issue was under control, we now had to eliminate the girls that didn’t feel comfortable with doing nudity. Girls comfortable getting naked in front of the camera was pretty important for us! We ended up casting Ashley (Kristy) and Kyla (Caylin) from Alberta, Jordan (Vivian) and Emily (Lauren) from Toronto, and Karine (Fiona) from Montreal – all Canadian beauties! We also found our male actors on casting websites, including the amazing Matt Popoff (Clay). Overall, I think it took us a few weeks.
We shot the film over a month from September to October 2011. Due to some challenges, including the cold Canadian weather, we had to schedule some reshoots for the following summer. So, in August 2012, we were back on location to finish what we had started almost a year ago, but obviously with more unpredictable challenges… like the camera dying on us just when we were about to call “action“ on the opening skinny-dipping scene of the film! A month later, there we were again setting up the lights for the scene again for the third time! Also, because the film was entirely financed by Geoff and I (no outside investors and no crowdfunding), the reshoots also depended on whether or not Geoff and I had the money to make it happen. Therefore, if we hadn’t had the money to reshoot the summer following principal photography, we probably would have had to wait for the summer of 2013 to actually move ahead with the reshoots since we needed a lake with “swimmable” water. As for the budget of the film, let’s just say that if Geoff and I had put that same amount of money onto our house we would be living mortgage free… but it was worth every single penny.

– „Pinup Dolls on Ice“ was shot 2013 and took nearly three years before its release on blu-ray/dvd. What took so long?

Pinup Dolls on Ice was actually shot in the fall of 2011, throw a couple of reshoots during the summer of 2012 followed by postproduction that was completed in May 2013. We had our world premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival in the month of July of that same year. Everything was delayed because of the reshoots and the entire “working-three-jobs-at-the-same-time-to-finish-the-film” situation! But mostly, Geoff and I didn’t want to settle for the first offer on the table. We started getting offers for the film before we even had our world premiere and had we been desperate filmmakers or pressured by outside investors or producers, we would have most likely jumped on the first offer. The beauty about being completely independent and free to create your art, is priceless. We had come this far, been through so many obstacles to put the film into action and to finish it, that we decided that we weren’t just going to give it away and that we were going to hold on to it for as long as we wanted to; and that’s exactly what we did. After a year on the festival circuit, we decided that it was time. We found a company based out of Los Angeles to represent the film; all the papers were signed and we were about to announce the good news to the world. Then, boom! The company we had just signed with got implicated in a five hundred fifty million dollar lawsuit! We called our lawyers and got out of that mess immediately! Pinup Dolls on Ice was back on the market! We found our current distributor and sales agent this past January, and here we are today with a German release!

– Was it hard to cast actresses who felt natural to undress completely in front of the camera?

LOL! No, it wasn’t! The list of actresses to choose from wasn’t long after we eliminated the girls that just didn’t fit with what we were looking for, but you would be amazed at what “first time actresses” are willing to do to get their shot at acting. Did you know that all the girls, except for Suzi Lorraine (Joy), were first time actresses? Pinup Dolls on Ice was their first appearance on the silver screen, including myself! I remember Emily not wanting to do full frontal nudity for her shower scene during principal photography, which was totally cool with us because the role only called to be topless. I don’t know why she had a change of heart, but during her reshoots in August 2012, she told me that she wanted to do full frontal nudity and that she wanted us to capture it all. My mind exploded and we rolled with it! To tell you the truth, Geoff and I only realized the amount of nudity in the film during the festival circuit when the crowds went crazy everytime a girl appeared on screen. I think Geoff and I got so desensitized to “naked-girls-on-set-all-day-all-night” that we just didn’t see it anymore. Sometimes, we would call “cut” and the girls wouldn’t even cover themselves; they would just stand there. I also think that even though the sexy scenes are indeed sexy, we were all still very aware that we were shooting a horror film and that the tone of the film was going to ultimately turn out to be very misogynistic and brutal; we were all more focused on that than the beautiful girls walking around.

– You did not only co-direct but also act, co-produce and took care of the special effects, also. What was the best part, what made most fun and for which kind of special effects were you responsible of?

The best part out of the entire experience for me was being able to experience the film with different horror fans and communities around the world, but on set, I’m going to say that co-directing was the best part. I loved working with the cast in that capacity. I don’t consider myself an actress and I don’t really enjoy doing special effects makeup; I had to take on those roles because of lack of budget! We didn’t have the money to hire another actress and I ended up doing the special effects makeup during the reshoots because we weren’t satisfied with the work that was done during principal photography. I took a few crash courses on special effects makeup which basically consisted of binge watching youtube videos and getting advice from friends. I mixed the fake blood myself as well as did my own special effects makeup in the entire film. The shot of Ashley in the freezer… that was all me! I’m pretty proud of that one! It got weird sometimes when I had to do William’s (Moe) special effects makeup knowing that he would be running after me in a couple of seconds to savagely kill me. When you think about it, I made him “look good” to kill me. That’s weird.

– Your fight with Moe is one of the most intense scenes in „Pinup Dolls on Ice“. Did you prepare and/or practice these scenes intensely prior to shooting?

There wasn’t any kind of rehearsal prior to shooting; everything was made up as we went. For my fight scene, we literally came up with the “choreography” five minutes before Geoff called “action” and we didn’t rehearse it either! We just memorized what we had discussed we were going to do; drowning in the bathtub first, thrown on the bar second, punched in the face third, etc. I love it that we did it that way because it allowed me the freedom to react the way I would react in real life if a crazy killer went after me instead of trying to force what the director wanted to see. However, even though I’m convinced I would put up a good fight in real life, I guarantee I wouldn’t last as long as Malone! The entire fight scene was so physically demanding that we shot it in three long takes. I couldn’t go another one; I was exhausted and my throat was getting soar from all the yelling! You should have seen my body the next day; I looked like a leopard from all the bruises! All the girls took some battle scars home with them, but if you asked them, they’ll say it was all worth it!

PDOI_POSTER– Rumours say, you are preparing another „on Ice“-movie. Can you tell us a little little little bit about it?

Well, it’s not a rumour! YES! We are currently working on the next “On Ice” film in the franchise and this one is going to be darker than the first two. If you know anything about the story behind Bikini Girls on Ice, you’ll know that the film wasn’t even supposed to make it into the hands of the mass public; it was a film that Geoff made as a joke with a bunch of friends until the phone rang one day and somebody offered him money for it. Why not, right? The film got sold in many territories and was being reviewed next to films like Zombie’s Halloween and wasn’t getting a warm welcome. So, for Pinup Dolls on Ice, we printed all the critics and tried to address them in the sequel! We still wanted the fluffiness of Bikini Girls on Ice in the first half of the film and then flip the switch on the audience in the second half and make them say “Wait… are we watching the same film as two minutes ago?”. The first two films were “test films” for us. Could we even work together? What were our strengths and weakness? Now that we have the experience under our belt, we can now approach the rest of the franchise more confidently. For the third film, we are going to work on the story. Trust us, we know that Bikini Girls on Ice and Pinup Dolls on Ice aren’t the image of strong storytelling and character development; that wasn’t our goal! For the next “On Ice” film, we will give a story to follow and introduce developed characters. That is our new challenge. However, we will keep reminding the audience that the “On Ice” films are, ultimately, slasher films… so if you are looking for deep storytelling, it’s not going to be in these films. The day Geoff and I are going to venture into making a character driven film with profound dialogue, trust me, its not going to be a slasher film.

PDOI_INTERNATIONAL– Last but not least: Please tell our readers, that William Jarand, actor of Moe, is the nicest guy you can think of, when he’s off camera. 😉

Dear blu-ray-rezensionen.net readers, you have nothing to fear! William is one of the sweetest human beings you’ll ever meet! He’s an incredible guitar player (name him a song and he’ll play it for you) and he loves meditating and tea; he’s the complete opposite of Moe! However, I have to say that he does take great pleasure in tormenting the girls on set prior to shooting with them. He’s the guy that walks around set with a hoodie and sunglasses and will follow you around all day knowing that you are shooting your scene with him that same night. He’ll sit in front of you while you’re eating and just stare, he’ll walk up to your trailer and look in the window and he’ll stand behind you breathing heavily while your having your coffee. He makes sure that when the time comes to shoot your scene, you’re already scared and nervous. He’s amazing! He also doesn’t talk to the actresses until he’s killed off in the film. He’ll completely ignore them until we call it a “wrap“ for the actress. Only then will he turn around and introduce himself… as well as tell you that he enjoyed killing you. Creepy! William is a sweetheart and there’s nothing to fear… but if he’s in costume, you’re on your own. RUN!

Stay in touch!
Melissa Mira


Nekrorapist

Blut, nackte Haut und ein richtig fieser Killer – kann doch eigentlich nichts schief gehen, oder?

Inhalt

Wenn das Quintett der Pinup Dolls loszieht und vor Publikum strippt, bleibt kein männliches Auge trocken – und die Hosen erst Recht nicht. Dabei sind die Mädels alles andere als willfährige Objekte der Begierde, denn wenn ein Veranstalter mal nicht zahlt, packen sie die Baseballschläger aus und schlagen eine Schneise der Zerstörung durch dessen Etablissement. Als sie für einige Zeit auf den Campingplatz eines alten Bekannten verweilen, begegnent ihnen dort ein mordlüsterner Grunzling, der schon einige Frauen auf dem Gewissen hat und sie für spätere Aktivitäten gerne mal einfriert. Im Angesicht dieses Brutalos verblasst dann die coolheit der Dolls zusehend und nach und nach fällt eine nach der anderen dem Kerl zum Opfer …

Blut und nackte Haut mal in ihrer reinsten Form – wo andere US-Slasher gerne beschämt wegblenden, hält Pinup Dolls on Ice frontal drauf. Schon der Eröffnungsakt hat das „Akt“ im Wort redlich verdient, immerhin darf die bedauernswerte Dame sich splitterfasernackt vor der Kamera präsentieren, bis sie von einem gar widerwärtigen Typen ziemlich brutal aufgeschlitzt wird. Ganz ernstzunehmen ist das trotz der äußerst blutigen Attacken zunächst nicht. Vor allem Schenkelbesenträger Clay stellt eher ein ironisiertes Machomännerbild dar. Nicht, dass wir uns falsch verstehen: Pinup Dolls on Ice ist ein ziemlich brutales Werk, dessen Killer erbarmungslos und geifernd vorgeht. Die Auseinandersetzung mit Malone ist schon alleine aufgrund der Dauer ziemlich heftig. Nur die Tatsache, dass direkte Gewalteinwirkung eher begrenzt dargestellt wird, erklärt, warum die FSK hier ein Auge zugedrückt und den Film ohne Schnittauflagen mit einer 18er Einstufung passieren ließ. Inszenatorisch ist das übrigens durchaus versiert. Melissa Mira (die auch die oben genannten Malone spielt) und Co-Regisseur Geoff Klein wissen, wie sie die Kamera einsetzen müssen und erzeugen während der Attacken eine unbedingte Terroratmosphäre. Die ist auch deshalb so unmittelbar, weil William Jarrand (der den Moe schon in Kleins 2009er Bikini Dolls on Ice gab) wie entfesselt agiert und einen wahrlich animalischen Killer gibt. Schade ist ein wenig, dass die anfänglich so wehrhaften Dolls im späteren Verlauf zu kreischenden Opfern werden- Hier hätte man durchaus das Potenzial für einen überraschenderen Handlungsverlauf gehabt. Betrachtet man aber die stimmungsvollen und atmosphärisch ziemlich dichten letzten 15 Minuten, dann werden die Genrefans nicht vorhandene Überraschungen sicher verschmerzen können.

Bild- und Tonqualität

Das Bild von Pinup Dols on Ice im ungewöhnlichen Format von 2,00:1 bedient sich einer drastisch reduzierten Farbpalette und kommt im braun-schmuddeligen Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-Look daher. Während der dunklen Szenen geht die Ruhe fast vollständig flöten und auch in besser ausgeleuchteten Momenten rauscht es sichtbar. Von Schärfe zu sprechen, wäre eine Beleidigung für tatsächlich plastisch gemasterte Filme – macht aber nichts, denn es passt zum grundsätzlich billigen Look des Films.
Beim Ton von Pinup Dolls on Ice muss man mit einem dts-HD-Master in 2.0-Stereo vorlieb nehmen, die englische Fassung läuft noch dazu mit nicht ausblendbaren Untertiteln. Dennoch ist diese die bessere Wahl, denn die deutsche Synchro klingt blechern und vor allem in den Nebenrollen mit Stimmamateuren besetzt. Außerdem kommt’s einfach nicht cool, wenn im Deutschen ständig von „Bitches“ geredet wird – sowas funktioniert, wenn überhaupt, nur im Original.

Bonusmaterial

Im Bonusmaterial von Pinup Dolls on Ice gibt’s außer den Originaltrailer und zwei drei weiteren Programmtipps nichts weiter zu entdecken.

Fazit

Pinup Dolls on Ice ist ein zwar überraschungsarmer, allerdings durchaus stimmig umgesetzter Slasher der drastischeren Sorte. Gerade die letzte halbe Stunde, die atmosphärisch dicht ist und gnadenlos zupackt, tröstet über die dialoglastigen Längen im zweiten Drittel hinweg.
Timo Wolters


Bewertung

Bildqualität: 50%
Tonqualität (dt. Fassung): 50%
Tonqualität (Originalversion): 55%
Bonusmaterial: 10%
Film: 60%

Anbieter: Donau Film/AL!VE
Land/Jahr: USA 2015
Regie: Melissa Mira, Geoff Klein
Darsteller: Melissa Mira, William Jarand, Suzi Lorraine, Emily Crighton, Karine Kerr
Tonformate: dts HD-Master 2.0: de, en
Bildformat: 2,00:1
Laufzeit: 80
Codec: AVC
FSK: 18 (uncut)