The Baddest Girl Gangs on Film

This summer’s cinema slate is all about teen girls gone wild, with Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers and Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring bringing the crime spree to theaters. Earlier this week, we listened to the Skrillex soundtrack for Korine’s neon bacchanal and looked at some awesome fan-made posters for the film. The trailer for Coppola’s Bling Ring also appeared online, which got us excited for celebrity-obsessed teens that rob from the rich. Girl groups that willfully break boundaries are rare in cinema, and we wanted to spotlight more of the biggest troublemakers on film. These brazen all-girl gangs (cliques and crime groups alike) proved men don’t necessarily have the upper hand when it comes to kicking ass and taking names.

pussycat

The thrill-seeking go-go dancers in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

The buxom bad girls in Russ Meyer’s cult classic Faster Pussycat are a gang of pissed off go-go dancers. The women head out on the highway where they rob, kidnap, and kill (with their bare freaking hands), casting men aside to get whatever they want: sex, money, and a good time. The biggest badass of the group is the trash-talking Varla who spews poetic one-liners like nobody’s business. There’s an interesting message about sexual/gender politics running through Pussycat if you choose to find it, but the uber violent shenanigans are dazzling on their own.

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TheresaKP 6 pts

Babydoll's fantasy gang in "Sucker Punch."  A strange & critically panned film, but incredibly stylish & those girls kicked a$$!

AlisonNastasi 14 pts moderator

 JulieHeyneman Heathers is on the list.

kafyn261 5 pts

No love for the the girls from "Mi Vida Loca"?

moviematica 7 pts

I am missing the gals of both "Kill Bill" movies and Zoe Bell´s crew in "Death Proof" by Quentin Tarantino...

AlisonNastasi 14 pts moderator

 moviematica Thanks for mentioning them! Love those ladies, but I didn't see them as "bad."

moviematica 7 pts

 AlisonNastasi  you are welcome! Well, personally I see O-Ren Ishii, Sofie Fatale & Co. as bad, but it´s a matter of taste, of course. 

AlisonNastasi 14 pts moderator

Thanks for adding those bekav and CladriteRadio !

bekav 5 pts

A nod to NYC underground filmmaker KATRINA DEL MAR...Missing from this list is her  famous girl gang trilogy! 

www.katrinadelmar.com

http://www.papermag.com/2010/07/gorgeous_girl_gangs_invade_ind.php

 

 

CladriteRadio 5 pts

You've come up with a worthy list, but no roster of girl-gang pictures would be complete with a mention of the Ed Wood-penned classic THE VIOLENT YEARS (1956). It must be seen to be believed.

sarahfondest 5 pts

Do The Plastics really count though? They're the only group on this list who doesn't get entangled in crime, and Regina George would look like Strawberry Shortcake standing next to Tura Satana.

AlisonNastasi 14 pts moderator

 sarahfondest Hah, yes — she would get the living daylights beat out of her for sure. Thinking about it in a serious way, that kind of bullying can do more damage than punches, so I felt like it counted. 

AlisonNastasi 14 pts moderator

 HomoViper Love that movie. I didn't feel like they were the baddest of the bad, apart from Jolie maybe?