Blood Games (1990)

A traveling female softball team must battle psychotic rednecks.  It's a film that defies expectations and well worth a look...

Midnight (Ross Hagen) manages a female softball team which travels from town to town playing ball against the locals.  His pitcher is his daughter, Babe (Laura Albert).

I'm not sure how this works.  The girls wear Hooters type uniforms, yet they're clearly not here to just look pretty.  Midnight has money on the games and they play against men who clearly mean to win.

Today they're playing in a rural town - a town which seems to be exclusively redneck males.

You would think these rednecks would go easy on the ladies, but they play dirty. Stoney (Julie Hall) is on base, and makes a run for third off a base hit.  But then....

The studly leader of this redneck town is Roy (Gregory Scott Cummins), and he elbows Stoney in the face as she rounds the base.

Donna (Shelley Abblett) and Babe help Stoney to the bench, and the camera leers at the girls - which is, admittedly, surprising considering it's directed by a woman, Tanya Rosenberg (her only IMDb credit, oddly enough).

If you follow VZ1 then you know I have to get ever character's name straight.  See the labels for the ladies surrounding the injured Stoney.

 Donna and Babe vow to get even with these "nose pickers"; it's time to play dirty.  Donna throws a ball directly at Roy's crotch.

 Babe hits an infield homer, and the girls end up trouncing the boys.

Roy's father, Mino (Ken Carpenter), is none too pleased with his son.  Not only did this cost him a lot of money (betting against Midnight), it shamed the family name.

The girls get on the bus and head to the next town.

 Shower/Locker Room Scene.  Donna (center) and the girls get cleaned up after a tough game.

 Connie (Sabrina Hills) and Ingrid (Randi Randolph) providing a topless scene.

 Stoney and Ingrid take a shower

 Shorty (Sonja Redo) notices one of the locals, Vern (Buck Flowers), spying on them.  She gives him something to look at.  When he reaches out to grab, she tackles his ass.

 Babe and the other girls hear the commotion and come to her aid.  Vern is thrown in the showers and has his ass handed to him.

Roy and Holt (Don Dowe) arm wrestle at the local bar.

Midnight finds Mino in the men's room at the bar and demands he pay up.  When he doesn't Midnight beats the shit out of him.

Babe goes to sleep and the other girls relax.  Mickey and Connie decide to go into town to look for Midnight.

 Big mistake.  They run into Roy and Holt who proceed to tear their tops off and molest them.

 Midnight intervenes but is stabbed.  Then Babe shows up with a firearm and the boys disperse.

The girls are horrified, and run to the aid of Connie, Mickey and Midnight. 

 They get on their bus and get the hell out of town.

 Holt and Roy shoot at the bus as it leaves... but Holt accidentally hits Roy, killing him.  Holt thinks fast and returns to the bar and tells everyone that the softball team killed him.

Mino rallies the entire redneck community to go after the bus.  In a chase down a winding rural road, Holt gets on the hood and jumps to the top of the bus.

Holt shoots through the bus' roof, but Babe manages to throw him off before he kills anyone.

Babe makes the decision to leave the bus behind (with her dead father in it) and go into the wilderness.

But Stoney is injured and can barely keep up with the group.

The camera leers up Stoney's acid-washed mini-dress.   Director  Tanya Rosenberg doesn't shy away from ogling the actresses one bit.

Then tragedy strikes as a hunter sends an arrow through Stoney, pinning her to a tree.

Babe finds her and alerts the group that Stoney's been killed.

 Donna thinks going deeper into the forest is a bad idea.  She wants to stand her ground and fight.  The girls are divided on what to do.  Louise and Shorty stay with Donna.  Mickey, Connie and Ingrid go with Babe.

 Shorty decides to sunbathe in the nude.

 You might think this is a ridiculous thing to do.  However, it's all a part of the plan.

Vern is back to being a Peeping Tom, but the girls are ready for him. Donna has a trap ready, and the perverted redneck is hung.

 But it all goes to hell real fast, as things take a very dark turn.  Louise is stripped and raped by Holt.

 For a film that has a tendency to be campy and not take itself seriously, it sure is a surprise to find a graphic rape.  This was actress Paula Manga's first film; quite the introductory role!

 Babe and her group arrive and beat the shit out of Holt's group with their softball bats.

 The bring Louise to safety.

Louise dies.  That leaves only five:

 Connie, Donna, Ingrid and Babe.  Mickey is being held by Holt, who Connie promptly blows away.  I love this picture - you can't get a more badass screen cap.  I want this poster size in my office.

 The survivors find a farm with a few sheds and a silo.

 While the rest of the girls hide out in a shed, Babe goes looking for Mino.

 She finds him and he's armed.  What follows is a rather intense cat-and-mouse around the abandoned farmstead.

The chase continues up a tall conveyor leading up to the top of a grain silo. 

 It finally ends with Mino falling to his death inside the silo.

The film ends, fittingly, watching the girls backsides as they walk away.  THE END

This is a great fucking movie.  How is this the only film directed by Tanya Rosenberg?  This was brilliant and deserves to be among the top of any cult movie list.  It does everything right, providing an intense story with likable interesting characters - and most of all, it doesn't pull any punches.  It delivers an awesome car chase, twists and turns, with good acting and endless energy.

Tanya Rosenberg provides nonstop T&A by ogling the girls in nearly every frame.  It changes pace from cheesy softball game to hunter-and-hunted Deliverance style backwoods action.  People die where you don't expect - Roy and Midnight in particular.  Holt is among the most vile characters you're likely to ever encounter on film. 

This stands among the precious few films reviewed on VZ1 which gets the full ten stars.
★★★★★★★★★★10/10