Amazingly in-depth exploration into the world of girl-powered cinematic mayhem from renegade nuns to prison babes to She Devils on Wheels. Curiously, though, Zalcock has taken a decidedly high-brow approach to her subject matter, adding much more psycho-social weight and metaphor on the less-than- heady concept of chicks in tight pants running amuck than the middle initialed exploitation kings that made these films, like Ted V. Mikels and HG Lewis, ever dreamed they were up to. As such, you'll have to get up to speed on concepts like 'phallicised females' to really know what's going on, but that said, there's a wealth of information here, neatly divided into the various sub-genres that make up the majority of 'girl gang' archetypes. Vampire girls and maniac nurses and halter topped outlaws all grace these pages, and Zalcock, a self-professed "dyke film maker" does an incredible job of describing both the films' action and the often blurry motivation behind them. For example, the Slumber Party Massacre is a reversal of the classic 'Castration anxiety' of most slasher films, and the girls that get drilled are being "punished for lapses in sisterly feelings" about one another. Well, alright. Elsewhere, there's an illuminating interview with one of the few female exploitation directors working during the drive-in era, Stephanie Rothman (Student Nurses, Terminal Island) who discusses the difficulties of operating as a feminist film-maker under the thumb of blood and breasts man Roger Corman, and there's also a couple of Q&A's with contemporary female film directors. Vivienne Dick (Beauty Becomes the Beast) was an NYC proto-punker, making transgressive super-8 films before Nick Zedd glamorized the concept, and Julie Jenkins, an English director (Muff Match) makes lesbian slapstick in the "Carry On" vein. Both discuss the influence of girl gang films on their craft.

All of which is well and good, and thanks to a year and a half of community college, I even understand most of the pseudo-academic crazy talk, but really, the major appeal of Renegade Sisters is the awe-inspiring array of black and white film stills. From the starved, feral looking caged nuns in "The Devils" to bad ass Pam Grier and her sawed off shotgun in "Coffy", it's a sexy rogue's gallery of female trouble. And really, that's what these films are all about in the end, aren't they? Cheap kicks. Unbuttoned blouses. Untamed flesh and unrivaled savagery. I mean, it may very well serve you to know that "The destructive power of female sexuality is at the heart of the fear that the image of the nun evokes in these films" when sitting down for a 'Nunsploitation' double bill of "Ms. 45" and "Dark Habits", but it's probably not necessary. You'll have to read between the lines with this one, but if you can get beyond the veneer of prurient interest disguised as feminist dogma, you'll find a treasure trove of obscure information on a vast cinematic landscape of ass kicking women and the (mostly) men that filmed them.