Someone is killing off the female leads of the movie production of Bad Girls from Mars. The producers feel they should try to finish the film, even though they're making a lucrative amount from insurance payoffs, so they fly in European sex bomb Emanuelle as the new lead. Emanuelle (Edy Williams) immediately begins embarrassing the producers by leading a wild party life around town. Meanwhile, the killings continue, and detectives try to stop the fiend responsible.
Fred Olen Ray says the film has its genesis with sets left over from Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death. The sets were going to be torn down so Ray decided to use them for a film. A script was written, actors hired (including Russ Tamblyn) and Ray shot two days of a sword and sorcery film, Wizards of the Demon Sword. He then planned filming the rest of the film. They only needed four days, and had five days use left of the camera equipment. Ray had $19,000 left and decided to make a movie. He was inspired by Hollywood Boulevard (1976) and decided to make a movie about making a movie. He says they wanted Adam West and Burt Ward so there are references to Batgirls from Mars and bat symbols in the film, but the actors were not available. Ray says it was one of the first movies to mention Ed Wood. When they started making it was called Emmanuel Goes to Hollywood.[1]
Reception
According to Ray, Demon Sword "tanked financially" in part because the movie wound up at Troma. However Bad Girls from Mars proved quite popular, being released by Lionsgate, tripling its money.[1]
According to TV Guide, "What begins as a dirty, simple-mindedly funny sci-fi parody winds up becoming an over-extended murder-mystery spoof."[3]
