a review of 九九九玉女寻凶

Watched this one as one of Letterboxd's "Summer Horror" selections for a little movie club that some friends on social media put together. I remember seeing it as a rental close to when it came out (possibly even on VHS?) but didn't really remember much about it at this point, so I'm counting it as a first-watch for the purposes of the 100 Horror Movies challenge. It works pretty well as a goofy, campy romp with loads of subversive queer themes/subtext -- a kind of "My First John Waters" if you will -- and the number of recognizable actors is kind of surprising in retrospect. Lauren Ambrose and Amy Adams are both pretty delightful in their roles and really capture both the feeling of 1960s teen starlets as well as the subversive camp element of the original stage play, where their characters were both played by drag performers. Unlike a lot of early-aughts comedies, the humor mostly holds up except for some weird unnecessary Black stereotype bits that probably shouldn't have been attempted by a movie with a pointedly all-white cast. The direction and cinematography are both pretty good, although the pacing sometimes feels a little slow even with a short runtime. Some of this I chalk up to it being a stage adaptation, some of it I chalk up to being part of the hangout vibe of the beach-movie genre. Appreciated hearing some of the more notable late '90s surf revival acts on the soundtrack, particularly with the inclusion of Man or Astro-Man's song "Mermaid Love" and the onscreen cameo by Los Straitjackets, in full lucha-libre masks.