A fast moving odyssey into the subterranean world of the rarely explored province of Filipino genre filmmaking.
Karate-kicking midgets! Paper-mache monsters! Busty babes with blades! Filipino genre films of the '70s and '80s had it all. Boasting cheap labour, exotic scenery and non-existent health and safety regulations, the Philippines was a dreamland for exploitation filmmakers whose renegade productions were soon engulfing drive-in screens around the globe like a tidal schlock-wave! At last, the all-too-often overlooked world of drive-in filler from Manilla gets the Mark Hartley (NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD) treatment in Machete Maidens Unleashed! This is the ultimate insiders' account of a faraway backlot where stunt men came cheap, plot was obsolete and the make-up guy was packing heat! Machete Maidens Unleashed! features interviews with cult movie icons Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Sid Haig, Eddie Romero and a large assembly of cast, crew and critics, each with a jaw-dropping story to tell about filmmaking with no budget...
To the exploitation filmmakers of the 1970s and 1980s there was no stunt too risky, no story too ridiculous, and no clothing that could not be removed in the name of mass entertainment. The name of the game was to move fast and cheap and to producers big and small the Philippines was the Promised Land, the Wild East of filmmaking where American producers were welcomed with open arms by an otherwise oppressive government and safety regulations were but a distant rumor from far off lands.
With Machete Maidens Unleashed acclaimed filmmaker Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood) dives head first into the hidden history of the American backed Filipino production boom. Filled with outrageous footage from this lost era and firsthand accounts from Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Jack Hill and a host of others who experienced the madness live and in person Machete Maidens Unleashed is a delirious ride through one of the most exhilarating periods of film history.

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