‘Streets of Vengeance’ Review: A Film That Delivers Over-The-Top Violence

I stumbled upon the film Streets of Vengeance purely by coincidence. I’ve been a bit obsessed with this new breed of synthwave music making a splash over the last couple of years. While browsing albums on Bandcamp, I discovered an artist from Mexico who calls himself Vestron Vulture. The name immediately struck a chord with me, so I blind-purchased his entire discography. One particular album caught my attention, the soundtrack to Streets of Vengeance.

With many synthwave bands, their music is inspired in part by ’80s soundtracks, you can never be sure if the movie is real or if it’s just the album name. After doing some research, I learned it was, in fact, real and very much finished. So I set out to land myself a copy of the film, and I was blown away. This isn’t going to be another review of the film (you can read my original thoughts here) but more of a celebration or appreciation of what directors Paul Ragsdale and Angelica De Alba accomplished.

For those unfamiliar with the film, Streets of Vengeance is the story of Mila (Delawna McKinney), an adult film star who thinks it’s time for her to move on. After having a bizarre encounter and knowing there’s a killer on the loose, it’s never been more evident the time for her to leave is now. Her contract with Ivan Dark (Bryan Hurd) will expire after her next project has wrapped. He throws Mila a retirement party, and everyone is having a great time until she finds herself being abducted by a man with a vendetta against women.

She barely escapes with her life but learns there’s a whole secret society of men out there known as “The Sword” who have sworn to rid the streets of women “like her” who taunt and tease men with their sexuality. Mila, with the help of some friends, band together to stop the hideous murders happening all over San Francisco and attempt to bring down the society before any more women lose their lives.

With digital and streaming media being the more accepted way to get a film distributed these days, Streets of Vengeance landed a deal with Olive Films and Slasher Video to release the film on DVD and Blu-ray. Olive Films is known for releasing classics such as Hair, Bound, and Great Balls of Fire. Slasher Video is their genre offshoot, and they give just as much attention to these smaller films as they do the big Hollywood ones.

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The Streets of Vengeance disc is absolutely loaded with fantastic and informative extras. There is an audio commentary track, cast interviews, a selection of music from Vestron Vulture, production stills, a photo gallery, music video, trailers, and the highlight, a feature-length behind-the-scenes documentary. It gives a very thorough and detailed look into the making of a low-budget feature, as well as introduces you to the actors behind the memorable characters. Seeing how they talk about one another gives you better insight into their work.

The cast is led by a group of highly talented women, Delawna McKinney, Paige LeNey, Cassidy St. Hubbins, and Flora E. Moon, who have undeniable chemistry onscreen. Because of this chemistry, they have no problem selling the message within the film. That’s right, a sleazy ’80s-style exploitation thriller with a message.

For far too many years, women have been treated as if they’re lesser than men when all of us should be treated as equals. They’ve been called names, body-shamed, and the list goes on. I have a wife and two young daughters, so it would kill me if they ever had to face such treatment. These issues are tackled in the film with the ladies rising up and banding together in order to put a stop to it. It’s in every sense a female empowerment movie, and that’s part of what makes it so special. De Alba and Ragsdale painstakingly created the movie and somehow managed to expertly keep the balance between the messages and the sleaze.

Streets of Vengeance is a film to remember. It delivers everything that’s expected from a genre film, as well as the unexpected. It introduces and cements the status of two independent filmmakers with very strong voices. It brings to life some very strong characters played by a group of immensely talented and powerful women. I am very thankful we have companies around like Slasher Video and Olive Films, who have treated this movie with nothing but the utmost respect, delivering a near-perfect disc and presentation.

Streets of Vengeance is now readily available to order, so get it now!

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