THE BOOM BOOM GIRLS OF WRESTLING: Less Interesting Than It Sounds

You would be right in thinking with a title like this The Boom Boom Girls Of Wrestling would be a lot of fun even if it wasn’t very good. Made by independent filmmaker Carolin Von Petzholdt, The Boom Boom Girls Of Wrestling claims to be inspired by true events (but I’m pretty sure this is just a gimmick), and tells the story of a group of out of work actresses who train to be wrestlers as part of some kind of reality show. However, on their way to their first event in Las Vegas their bus breaks down and they are stranded in a ghost town where a mysterious slasher (dressed as chicken, because, why not?) picks them off one by one.

I’d love to tell you ‘it was so bad it was good’, or that it was actually good. But, no. Von Petzholdt has put a lot of effort into The Boom Boom Girls Of Wrestling, but unfortunately, for the most part it feels like nothing better than people saying words in front of a camera.

It’s Not Awful

The major surprise of this film is that it’s not awful. The actors don’t act badly, they just don’t really act. The story is well plotted but it’s kind of unbelievable. And not because it is so over the top, but because it’s kind of dull. If this were a real life situation you would expect much more drama. As it is, the girls who audition for this wrestling team are quite vacant characters and not at all suspicious of this rather strange set-up.

That’s not to say Von Petzholdt hasn’t made an attempt at drama. Even though the girls themselves aren’t very interesting there are occasional dramatic moments, romantic and violent. The relationship between the two trainers is very interesting. It’s also strangely believable and incredibly surprising. Especially when you discover that one of the best actresses in the film, Melissa R. Stubbs, is actually a stunt coordinator and has worked on the new X-Files series.

For all its attempt at drama though, much of the film plays as though the cast is simply trying out acting. They know to shout when they are angry and look at the floor when they are sad, but that’s about it. Von Petzholdt is not a great director but the very fact that she keeps the story moving along shows she at least has some idea of how to tell one.

Salvation Lies In The Technicalities

The Boom Boom Girls Of Wrestling has potential and while it is not technically awful, so much could have been done to make this a much more watchable and enjoyable film. Firstly, the film really should have decided whether it was going to be serious or purposely tongue in cheek. As the film currently stands you’re not entirely sure. Asylum films such as Sharknado really step up to the mark of being ‘bad’ and are entertaining as a result.

With The Boom Boom Girls Of Wrestling, however, you’re not sure whether you’re supposed to be laughing at it, or sympathising with it. The dialogue doesn’t do much to help either. Sometimes you feel like you’re in a thriller, sometimes a B-movie. Although I will never forget some of those lines. “Vagina’s closed” was a particular favourite.

While the story was good, the script could have been much tighter and made a bit more sense. As it is it seems like someone wrote about a bunch of girls training to be wrestlers, and then just dropped in some clichéd scenes for dramatic effect. The sexual deviant boss masturbating, the bitchy girl using the TV presenter (who does some terrible acting by the way) for sex, the romantic liaison between the two trainers, all stand out as the most interesting scenes. That being said it was the worst sex scene I’ve ever seen, and for some reason trainer Darlene (Stubbs) taking Lisa (Crystal Santos) from her bedroom to a kids’ park to seduce her is probably a weird idea.

As previously mentioned, the acting was not great. Not because the actresses were bad but because they were probably still taking acting lessons and weren’t entirely sure what they were supposed to do. Also, some of them, like me, seemed to be confused as to whether this was supposed to be serious or silly. Andrew Hamrick (as manager Richard Black) is the best you’re going to get out of this film, acting-wise. Actually, I think without Hamrick, Stubbs and Santos, the film would have been properly bad.

Ultimately, what could have saved The Boom Boom Girls Of Wrestling would have been better cinematography and sound editing. Despite obvious mistakes in pulling focus and the strangely vacant soundtrack, these poorly executed facets make the whole film feel quite blank and vacant. Sometimes it feels like someone has just set up the camera in the easiest spot and walked away. Then to add insult to injury Von Petzholdt has used whole shots in her final edit. If you watch this film you’ll spend a lot of down time watching these women trying very basic wrestling moves and failing to sweat as they work out. Make those scenes shorter, do some close-ups, mist the actresses with some baby oil (to simulate sweat) and you’ve infinitely improved this particular section of the movie.

Conclusion

I really wanted The Boom Boom Girls Of Wrestling to be a lot of fun, but it’s just sort of boring. Despite laughing at the odd interesting moment of bad acting or bad dialogue I mostly ended up critiquing the cinematography, or wondered how everyone had such nice bras. Von Petzholdt made this film with just a few thousand dollars; she hoped to show how you could make a film on very little money. She then tried on two occasions to raise distribution costs, but failed.

For all those reasons I like Von Petzholdt. How can you not like someone who tries so hard? And has produced something, never mind how poor-to-average it is? I hope she sticks with the indie filmmaking, but I also hope that she maybe takes a few filmmaking classes. Better yet, take those classes and then remake this film. Because a group of female wrestlers being killed off by a slasher dressed in a blue lycra suit and a rubber chicken head has potential written all over it. I’m not even joking.

Have you seen The Boom Boom Girls Of Wrestling? What did you think? Let us know in the comments.

(top image source: Entertainment Productions)