Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives
Encyclopedia
Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives is an American rape and revenge
exploitation film released in 2010. The film follows a trio of transgender friends who exact revenge on the men who brutally assault them and murder two of their friends.
Ticked-Off Trannies engendered controversy when it was programmed at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival
. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation condemned the film for what it called a negative portrayal of transgender people.
Some time later, Bubbles awakens from a coma. She learns from Pinky and Rachel that Emma and Tipper are dead. After Bubbles is discharged from the hospital, her friend Fergus (Richard D. Curtin) trains the three surviving women in martial arts.
Back at Bubbles' apartment, Boner, Nacho and Chuey break in and overpower her again, tying her to a chair. Boner offers Bubbles a choice of ways to die but he momentarily turns his back on her. When he turns back Nacho and Chuey are unconscious and Bubbles, freed, knocks him out. A flashback reveals that Bubbles, Pinky and Rachel set a trap for the men.
Boner regains consciousness to learn that the women have placed switchblade
knives in the rectal cavities of Nacho and Chuey and a gun in his own rectum, weapons that will be triggered if any of them make any sudden moves. In a series of convoluted action sequences, Nacho and Chuey each recovers his knife and battles one of the women. Rachel kills Chuey and Pinky battles Nacho until Boner recovers his gun and holds it on Bubbles. Bubbles wrestles him for the weapon and, as Pinky finishes off Nacho, Bubbles shoots Boner in the chest. Pinky and Rachel each impale Boner with their thrown knives and Bubbles wrenches a large knife out of Nacho's skull and splits Boner's head with it, finally killing him.
genre, in particular the 1978 film I Spit on Your Grave
and the Linda Blair
vehicle Savage Streets
. The idea for his self-described "transploitation" film came while he and a group of friends were watching Robert Rodriguez
and Quentin Tarantino's
film Grindhouse. "After, we were just playing around and someone said I should do this with drag queens. That would be so much fun. I thought, 'Well, let me try to think of how we could do this with absolutely no budget whatsoever.' I thought a simple, old-fashioned revenge movie would be easy to write for me. And that’s what I did."
Luna did not want to tell the story of a male gay bashing
victim because he believed that such stories have been told often already. "I wanted to do something more modern and I thought 'Whose story do you never see on the news these days?' It’s not gay men—it’s transgenders."
in the summer of 2009, on a 18-day shooting schedule. The finished film is artificially worn with scratches and other indicators of age and at some points a jump in the action is covered with an intertitle
indicating that a reel of the film is missing.
, John Anderson compared Ticked-Off Trannies to the works of Roger Corman
, Quentin Tarantino
and Robert Rodriguez
. Finding that the film has a "transgressive edginess", Anderson noted the "catch-22" that Luna created for himself in balancing its championing of transgender people with its exploitation of their "inherently funny" nature. He called the film's production values "deliberately and appropriately horrible", which he said Luna uses as a way to escape any plot difficulties within the film by jumping ahead in the story with the claim of a "missing reel" of the film. Anderson concludes that Luna is for the most part successful in creating solid characters but that the film descends into the realm of cartoon violence.
Neil Genzingler for The New York Times
expressed embarrassment at the idea of even having to review a film called Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives before finding the film to be inept. "The only amusement comes in the catty remarks occasionally exchanged by the girls."
Gary Goldstein of The Los Angeles Times dismissed the film as "a joyless grind". Conversely, Frank Scheck for Reuters
found the film "more than lives up to its title", although it would "probably [be] best appreciated at a midnight showing".
The Tribeca Film Festival
scheduled Ticked-Off Trannies to debut at its 2010 festival. This drew a complaint from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which stated that the film "misrepresent[s] the lives of transgender women and use[s] grotesque, exploitative depictions of violence against transgender women in ways that make light of the horrific brutality they all too often face". GLAAD claimed that the film conflated transgenderism with drag
, which would create the impression in viewers unfamiliar with trans issues that "transgender women are ridiculous caricatures of 'real women'". GLAAD also criticized the filmmakers for referencing the real-life murders of transwoman Angie Zapata
and gay teenager Jorge Mercado in the original trailer, which GLAAD believed reduced their murders to the level of the "outlandish violence" of the film.
The Tribeca Film Festival issued a response to GLAAD's concerns, noting that GLAAD had been provided with a copy of the film well in advance of the festival and that the organization had offered media advice to the producers, director Luna and members of the cast.
Writer/director Luna was puzzled by the negative reaction. He noted that the film's theme was one of empowerment, not victimhood. Luna said that he checked with many members of the Dallas transgender community, including those who worked on the film, regarding the use of the word "trannies" in the title and they had no issue with it, although he acknowledged that others within the community did object to it. He did, however, decide to re-cut the trailer to remove references to murder victims Zapata and Mercado.
Lead actress Krystal Summers responded to the controversy, saying in part "Our film does not promote hate or violence against transgender women. It is not a documentary, but a work of fiction and a revenge fantasy." She asked the viewing public to judge the film on its own merits and not on the basis of GLAAD's opinion.
Rape and revenge films
Rape and revenge films are a subgenre of exploitation film that was particularly popular in the 1970s. Rape/revenge movies generally follow the same three act structure:...
exploitation film released in 2010. The film follows a trio of transgender friends who exact revenge on the men who brutally assault them and murder two of their friends.
Ticked-Off Trannies engendered controversy when it was programmed at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation condemned the film for what it called a negative portrayal of transgender people.
Plot
After performing at a local club, Rachel Slurr (William Belli) and Emma Grashun (Erica Andrews) plan to party with their friends Nacho (Kenny Ochoa) and Chuey (Gerardo Davila). When the guys tell them that they have a third friend, the girls convince their reluctant friend Bubbles Cliquot (Krystal Summers) to join them. The girls drive to a warehouse where they are joined by Nacho and Chuey, along with their partner Boner (Tom Zembrod). Bubbles tells her friends that Boner had recently drugged and raped her during a hook-up when he discovered she was transgender. Vowing to "finish the job", Boner, Nacho and Chuey attack the girls. Emma and Rachel are severely wounded but Bubbles is able to call her mother Pinky La'Trimm (Kelexis Davenport) and Tipper Sommore (Jenna Skyy) and escape. Pinky and Tipper find Bubbles outside the warehouse and head inside to rescue Rachel and Emma. Instead, they are overpowered by the men and Boner attacks Bubbles again outside.Some time later, Bubbles awakens from a coma. She learns from Pinky and Rachel that Emma and Tipper are dead. After Bubbles is discharged from the hospital, her friend Fergus (Richard D. Curtin) trains the three surviving women in martial arts.
Back at Bubbles' apartment, Boner, Nacho and Chuey break in and overpower her again, tying her to a chair. Boner offers Bubbles a choice of ways to die but he momentarily turns his back on her. When he turns back Nacho and Chuey are unconscious and Bubbles, freed, knocks him out. A flashback reveals that Bubbles, Pinky and Rachel set a trap for the men.
Boner regains consciousness to learn that the women have placed switchblade
Switchblade
A switchblade is a type of knife with a folding or sliding blade contained in the handle which is opened automatically by a spring when a button, lever, or switch on the handle or bolster is activated A switchblade (also known as an automatic knife, pushbutton knife, switch, Sprenger, Springer,...
knives in the rectal cavities of Nacho and Chuey and a gun in his own rectum, weapons that will be triggered if any of them make any sudden moves. In a series of convoluted action sequences, Nacho and Chuey each recovers his knife and battles one of the women. Rachel kills Chuey and Pinky battles Nacho until Boner recovers his gun and holds it on Bubbles. Bubbles wrestles him for the weapon and, as Pinky finishes off Nacho, Bubbles shoots Boner in the chest. Pinky and Rachel each impale Boner with their thrown knives and Bubbles wrenches a large knife out of Nacho's skull and splits Boner's head with it, finally killing him.
Cast
- Krystal Summers as Bubbles Cliquot
- Kelexis Davenport as Pinky La'Trimm
- Willam BelliWillam BelliWillam Belli is an American film and television actor perhaps best known for his recurring role as transsexual Cherry Peck in Nip/Tuck. He has been in a few films including American Wedding , The Last Shot , Unbeatable Harold , and Big Top and Because I Said So...
as Rachel Slurr - Erica Andrews as Emma Grashun
- Jenna Skyy as Tipper Sommore
- Tom Zembrod as Boner
- Richard D. Curtin as Fergus
- Kenny Ochoa as Nacho
- Gerardo Davila as Chuey
- Todd Jenkins as Doctor Phil Laccio
- Chase Wade as Nurse Connie Lingus
- Molly Spencer as La'Trice
- Melissa Timmerman as Marcy
- Souk Burrows as Flash
- Curt Wheeler as Squirt
Inspiration
Luna was inspired by the exploitation filmExploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
genre, in particular the 1978 film I Spit on Your Grave
I Spit On Your Grave
Day of the Woman is a 1978 controversial rape revenge film. The film received a limited release, with a wider release in 1980. Prominent film critics condemned the film for its graphic violence and lengthy depictions of gang rape, and the motion picture remains controversial to this day...
and the Linda Blair
Linda Blair
Linda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic.-Biography:Blair...
vehicle Savage Streets
Savage Streets
Savage Streets is a 1984 American vigilante action film starring Linda Blair. Directed by Danny Steinmann, the film premiered on October 5, 1984.-Plot:...
. The idea for his self-described "transploitation" film came while he and a group of friends were watching Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
and Quentin Tarantino's
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
film Grindhouse. "After, we were just playing around and someone said I should do this with drag queens. That would be so much fun. I thought, 'Well, let me try to think of how we could do this with absolutely no budget whatsoever.' I thought a simple, old-fashioned revenge movie would be easy to write for me. And that’s what I did."
Luna did not want to tell the story of a male gay bashing
Gay bashing
Gay bashing and gay bullying is verbal or physical abuse against a person who is perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender . Such abuse is used also to bully heterosexual persons and persons of non-specific or unknown sexual orientation.A "bashing" may be a specific incident, and one...
victim because he believed that such stories have been told often already. "I wanted to do something more modern and I thought 'Whose story do you never see on the news these days?' It’s not gay men—it’s transgenders."
Production
Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives was shot in Dallas, TexasDallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
in the summer of 2009, on a 18-day shooting schedule. The finished film is artificially worn with scratches and other indicators of age and at some points a jump in the action is covered with an intertitle
Intertitle
In motion pictures, an intertitle is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of the photographed action, at various points, generally to convey character dialogue, or descriptive narrative material related to, but not necessarily covered by, the material photographed.Intertitles...
indicating that a reel of the film is missing.
Reception
Writing for VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, John Anderson compared Ticked-Off Trannies to the works of Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
and Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
. Finding that the film has a "transgressive edginess", Anderson noted the "catch-22" that Luna created for himself in balancing its championing of transgender people with its exploitation of their "inherently funny" nature. He called the film's production values "deliberately and appropriately horrible", which he said Luna uses as a way to escape any plot difficulties within the film by jumping ahead in the story with the claim of a "missing reel" of the film. Anderson concludes that Luna is for the most part successful in creating solid characters but that the film descends into the realm of cartoon violence.
Neil Genzingler for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
expressed embarrassment at the idea of even having to review a film called Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives before finding the film to be inept. "The only amusement comes in the catty remarks occasionally exchanged by the girls."
Gary Goldstein of The Los Angeles Times dismissed the film as "a joyless grind". Conversely, Frank Scheck for Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
found the film "more than lives up to its title", although it would "probably [be] best appreciated at a midnight showing".
The Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
scheduled Ticked-Off Trannies to debut at its 2010 festival. This drew a complaint from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which stated that the film "misrepresent[s] the lives of transgender women and use[s] grotesque, exploitative depictions of violence against transgender women in ways that make light of the horrific brutality they all too often face". GLAAD claimed that the film conflated transgenderism with drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
, which would create the impression in viewers unfamiliar with trans issues that "transgender women are ridiculous caricatures of 'real women'". GLAAD also criticized the filmmakers for referencing the real-life murders of transwoman Angie Zapata
Angie Zapata
Angie Zapata was an American trans woman beaten to death in Greeley, Colorado. Allen Andrade was convicted of first-degree murder and committing a bias-motivated crime, because he killed her after he learned that she was transgender. The case was the first in the nation to get a conviction for a...
and gay teenager Jorge Mercado in the original trailer, which GLAAD believed reduced their murders to the level of the "outlandish violence" of the film.
The Tribeca Film Festival issued a response to GLAAD's concerns, noting that GLAAD had been provided with a copy of the film well in advance of the festival and that the organization had offered media advice to the producers, director Luna and members of the cast.
Writer/director Luna was puzzled by the negative reaction. He noted that the film's theme was one of empowerment, not victimhood. Luna said that he checked with many members of the Dallas transgender community, including those who worked on the film, regarding the use of the word "trannies" in the title and they had no issue with it, although he acknowledged that others within the community did object to it. He did, however, decide to re-cut the trailer to remove references to murder victims Zapata and Mercado.
Lead actress Krystal Summers responded to the controversy, saying in part "Our film does not promote hate or violence against transgender women. It is not a documentary, but a work of fiction and a revenge fantasy." She asked the viewing public to judge the film on its own merits and not on the basis of GLAAD's opinion.