Double Date (2017)

 

I have never seen Kelly Wenham before. I'm just not familiar with her. I am now. Wow, she is a dynamo. Fierce and seductive, Wenham is THE reason I think to see Double Date (2017), about sister serial killers (well, her other sister, the less eyepopping but nonetheless appealing Georgia Groome, who is actually a sweetheart, seemingly pulled into the whole grisly affair undertaken by Wenham) targeting pickup guys for a specific ritual to bring their dead father back from the dead. Star Danny Morgan (or as he is often referred to by the film, "a ginger virgin"), who also wrote the screenplay for the film, is Jim, an awkward 29 year old virgin, about to experience his 30th birthday without ever having sex. His well-meaning buddy, Alex (Michael Socha), is a bit of a loud, on-the-nose, extreme confidence man, looking to get Jim laid. Wenham's Kitty actually trains to attack and destroy men, sweating it out, her teeth clinched, a ton of rage laid into every kick and punch landed on a poor dummy (with abs, no less)...she eventually lands such hammering thuds across the face, the dummy head comes clean off! We see her in action in the very first sequence of the film prior to credits, unleashing a flurry of knife stabs into the body of some mark, the guy never even having a chance to defend himself. Groome's Lulu just seems completely overwhelmed and clearly apprehensive about killing guys...it is Kitty who commits 100% to the bloodshed. She likes it.

Unfortunately for Danny's Jim, an easy-going, shy, affable sort, he's a mark for Kitty because, according to whatever ritual they adhere to, a virgin is needed to bring back her father. Jim spots the sisters arriving at a pub he frequents and Alex badgers him into approaching them (well, one of them) for a date. Kitty realizes that Jim is perhaps smitten with Lulu so she aims to somehow remove Alex from their mark if at all possible.

If you like the back alley fight between Roddy Piper and Keith David then the fight scene between Alex and Kitty will "be up your alley". It goes on and on because Kitty just won't stop no matter how Alex can get the better of her. She's resilient, undeterred, unyielding. No matter how many walls and furniture Alex hurls Kitty into, she just won't stay down. He even drops a shelf on top of her, even jumping up and down on her afterward. And she STILL won't stay down. Ironically enough, while those two scuffle and pummel each other, Lulu addresses what Kitty's up to and that they are the Man Eater serial killer duo. They talk and discuss, with Lulu just wanting Jim to leave, while Alex just wants Kitty to stop coming at him. So the physicality of one room is juxtaposed with a pained discussion in the other.

While I wasn't so down for all the family hi-jinx when Jim retreats for a bit to a birthday party held at his parents' house (they have shirts made with his kid picture on the front), as Lulu attends (she drives him from the club to the home like a maniac behind the wheel), I found the club scenes with Kitty among a foggy, neon-lit accumulation of young adults dancing and swaying atmospheric. Well, Wenham lit red in a bathroom before she slits the throat of a club manager and her sheer presence in the club with all that aforementioned atmosphere is ravishing. You can see why Kitty could lure men hoping to score to her home, unaware of what she has in store for him. Barfoot landed an incredibly alluring powerhouse in Wenham. Jim and Groome fit together so well...I think you could see why they mesh as a potential couple, if not for the whole "sister serial killers stockpiling dead men in the basement to resurrect their father" situation. Lulu's hesitance and Kitty's persistence contrast well as the two differ quite a bit in terms of conducting such disturbing actions. The police out to catch them, and a photo of the sisters; it is only a matter of time before the jig was up. I liked how the sisters are totally different but Kitty's influence (and her taking no for an answer) is hard for Lulu to shake. 

The violence is mainly at the very beginning and at the very end. There is a brief takedown of Alex's father, after he sees the broadcast about Kitty and Lulu, while Alex and Jim are away getting supplies from a convenience store. Alex and Kitty's fight is probably the major highlight, although the father (very similar to granpa in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), decaying with flies, opening his eyes and hobbling towards a captured Jim, his arms and legs and mouth taped short in a chair, is hard to top. But, no mistake about it, my takeaway from this was Wenham. She was a revelation. 2.5/5