The world of cult cinema has never been a stranger to the concept of ripping off James Cameron's “The Terminator,” offering up plenty of choices that have taken partial or just outright pillaging of the themes, concepts, or wholesale scenes from the seminal film. While most of these choices originate from Italy, and especially Bruno Mattei who ripped off the concept several times in his career, an unlikely source emerged in Indonesia when cult director H. Tjut Djalil took the idea and offered up a localized flavor to the scenario with his beloved cult classic “Lady Terminator”.
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While on holiday in the South Seas, anthropology student Tania (Barbara Anne Constable) hears a story about the legend of the South Seas Queen, a cruel ruler who killed male lovers if they were unsatisfactory and disappeared years before. After going for a swim in the area and coming back to shore, she finds that the spirit of the South Seas Queen has possessed her. Realizing that she's being instructed to carry out a mission of revenge on those that wronged her, she turns into a gun-wielding maniac, killing off all those that stand before her. Learning her rampage is to stop pop singer Erica (Claudia Angelique Rademaker) in retribution for how she was originally stopped, police officer Max (Christopher J. Hart) sets out to protect Erica from the indestructible Tania on her trail.
There's quite a lot to like with “Lady Terminator.” What really works nicely here is the highly enjoyable and entertaining way it goes about delivering the cheesy action scenes. As the initial setup places the possession at the beginning of the film and happens nearly immediately, there's a chance to riff on a number of classic scenes from “The Terminator” in a more genre-friendly setup. The dispatching of the punks on the beach includes sexually conquering them before ambushing them for their clothing so as not to walk around nude, taking out numerous friends or innocent bystanders as well as the various involving her discharging powers to manipulate those around her come off as familiar retreads. Those scenes are given more of a horror vibe as the idea of the unfazed being wantonly dispatching anyone it comes across in its quest to kill off her target carries the same weight as before, but turns into a more chilling concept that is played with nicely.
That, in turn, becomes the setting for “Lady Terminator” switching gears into a full-on action film in the second half. The sequences of her taking out those in her path are filled with cheesily-filmed but energetic gunplay sequences where the amount of firepower that both Tania takes from the police officers trying to stop this crazed woman shooting up the local hotspots or that she dishes out. With furious shootouts taking place in a nightclub performance, during frantic chases in careening cars along city streets and the glorious police station massacre, there's plenty of brutal and bloody sequences with victims firing tons of rounds on the impenetrable Tania only to receive plenty themselves, which rip their bodies apart in graphic fashion. Featuring an over-the-top finale full of helicopter-mounted rifle fire, explosions galore and a truly indestructible showcase for the possessed being chasing after Erica despite the efforts to stop her. It is fast and frenetic resulting in a delirious pace and tempo that provides cheesy gore and action for nearly the duration of the film's running time.
In the end, though, “Lady Terminator” still has one huge overarching flaw on display. For as much good as the action here keeps things running along, it also can't escape the low-budget charm that's on display here. With the constant explosion of deaths emerging throughout here, the use of cheap make-up effects and prosthetics is increasingly high and that manages to be the case. The body squibs that showcase all the bullet wounds and gunshots in the numerous massacres look rather cheap and flimsy, much like the scene where she repairs the damage to her eye. Not only is this sequence a direct rip-off of “The Terminator” but the gore for this is just laughably bad and looks cheesy in the wrong way. The other slight issue is the aforementioned rip-off sequences that run rampant in the film, which shouldn't be a surprise but are still a big drawback. It runs through the motions and copies plotlines, themes, sequences, and even lines of dialog from the other film in a cheesy, straightforward manner that never leaves any surprises at all here. Otherwise, this one doesn't have too much to really hold it back.
Featuring a ton of cheesy action, over-the-top gore, and some generally non-detrimental issues that are wholly expected to be found in a film like this, “Lady Terminator” emerges as exactly the kind of film you would imagine it would be for better or worst. Those who can appreciate this kind of wild exploitation offering, or looking for this approach in their films will have plenty to like here.
