Lady Terminator (1989) User Reviews

More entertaining than Terminator Salvation.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 4 September 2016]

Long before Kristanna Loken played the T-X in T3, the beautiful Barbara Anne Constable starred as an indestructible female killing machine in Lady Terminator, a hilariously inept Indonesian rip-off of James Cameron's sci-fi classic The Terminator.

The film begins with the South Sea Queen having sex with a guy with big hair, before chewing off his tackle with her snatch, asking 'Is there any man who can satisfy me?'. Her next conquest, her 100th husband, isn't about to let the queen take his manhood, pulling the source of the queen's power—a snake—from between her legs, and banishing her to the sea. Before the waves swallow up her castle, the queen swears vengeance on the man's great grand-daughter.

A century later, and the spirit of the South Sea Queen possesses sexy anthropology student Tania (the beautiful Barbara Anne Constable) by magically inserting a snake up her chuff; she then proceeds to carry out her threat, hunting down aspiring pop singer Erica (Claudia Angelique Rademaker), descendant of the man who betrayed her.

From hereon-in, Lady Terminator consists of cheap but very bloody carbon copies of The Terminator's most iconic scenes, with a nightclub shootout (but only after Erica has sung a dreadful song in its entirety), an assault on a police station (with lots and lots of juicy squibs, including bloody shots to the crotch), and the Lady Terminator performing surgery on herself, removing her eyeball to run it under a tap, before popping it back in.

All of this is executed with very little technical prowess but lots of gusto, making the film a blast for fans of cheap, foreign exploitation. More violent than Cameron's film, with the added bonus of lots of nudity courtesy of sexy Barbara Anne Constable, and a memorable turn from Adam Stardust as gung-ho cop Snake, who sports one of cinema's most impressive mullets, this is trashy z-grade fun from start to finish.

A Completely Gonzo Asian Schlock Flick!

[britishdominion · 7/10 · 15 March 2005]

Perhaps it's best to describe "LADY TERMINATOR" as one of the whacked-out weirdest, most inept and certainly howl-worthy junk creations to come along since, well, since as long as one can remember.

What starts as a plodding and confusing back story of the curse of a South Seas dragon lady quickly machine-guns, backflips and explodes into a slapdash riff/ripoff/homage on 1984's "THE TERMINATOR" with a dash of voodoo black magic for good measure.

The story? A sultry vacationing anthropologist (actress AND the film's makeup artist Barbara Ann Constable) takes a dip in the sea and comes up for air both possessed AND nude - and ready to blow the hell out of Indonesia. Rendered invulnerable by the said watery witch, our new Lady Terminator is determined to avenge the ages-old curse by gun or by sex, and rack up an impressive (and awfully bloody) body count that puts Arnie's sci-fi original to absolute shame.

The paint-by-number script is lousy in a so-bad-it's-awful way in its collision of actual Indonesian legend and slavish mimicry of James Cameron's breakout action hit. The film's direction is chaotically messy and disjointed, and the performances are awe-inspiringly amateur. To make matters worse (or better) everyone in the film - even the Caucasian actors sprinkled in for a "international" flare - are all dubbed incredibly badly, making it one of the best "Mystery Science Theater 3000" episodes never made.

I'll give the film this - it clicks right along. There's not a lot of time for character development because there's gratuitous nudity and so many more explosions to squeeze in. For that you get your Rupiah's worth.

Completely bizarre and laughably incompetent, this is the stuff cult films are made of. It will make any pasty-skinned midnight movie lover very, very happy.

If you loved "OUT OF Africa", see "LADY TERMINATOR".

Don't you just hate it when your Panzer Tank can't stop an Oldsmobile?

[merklekranz · 6/10 · 10 December 2010]

"Lady Terminator" is seriously funny stuff. Because it is not played for laughs, it is really hilarious, with it's staccato dubbing. "I'm not a lady, I'm an Anthropologist". The plot is absolutely bananas, and trying to describe it would be futile. Think of it as a series of almost unrelated scenes, that somehow work on their own. The film oozes with excitement, even if none of it makes any sense. The photography is glitzy, the stunts in many cases burn up ridiculous plastic models, and the policeman hero looks like a Kier Dullea clone. None of this matters however, because you might die laughing watching this terrible movie masterpiece. - MERK

Come With Me....If You Want to Laugh

[Michael_Elliott · 1 August 2015]

Lady Terminator (1989)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Indonesian rip-off of the James Cameron has a sea goddess using her "female parts" to cut off "male parts" but one brave man stands up to her, pulls the snake out of her vagina, which then turns into a knife and kills her. She swears vengeance on his great, great granddaughter. Flash-forward one hundred years and the unstoppable killing machine will stop at nothing to get the woman.

LADY TERMINATOR is a really, really awful movie on so many levels but thankfully it's so incredibly nuts that you can't help but have a great time with it. If you're looking for a more quality type of film then this here certainly isn't going to be your cup of tea because everything here is pretty bad from some insane dialogue to the laughable story and lets not even get into some of the various issues with the actual ripping off of the Cameron movie.

It's interesting to note just how much here is actually ripped off. I mean, not only do we get lines like "Come with me if you want to live" but entire sequences are ripped off from the Cameron movie. It's clear that the filmmakers here didn't care and that their end result seemed to be just making sure this movie was more violent than Cameron's. The action scenes here contain all sorts of gunfire and explosions but the amount of blood on display is just great fun for those who enjoy such things. One simple bullet leads to a gallon of blood being sprayed. Not only that but we get some of the weirdest sex scenes that lead to various men's body parts being removed.

If you're looking for great performances then you had better look elsewhere. With that said, Barbara Anne Constable plays the villain and she's actually quite good in the part. Not to mention she offers up a lot of nude scenes to add to the exploitation and we all know that this here is never a bad thing. The dialogue itself is beyond awful and it too gets a lot of laughs. LADY TERMINATOR isn't a movie that was made to win Oscars. It's a crazy, non-stop violent and downright silly rip-off that manages to be quite entertaining.

James Cameron called, he wants his script back!

[JoeB131 · 2/10 · 25 July 2007]

Okay, the plot of this movie is silly. Essentially, there was a South Seas Queen who laid a curse on the only guy who gave her good sex, that in a hundred years, she would hunt down his great granddaughter.

Flash forward to present day, an American Anthropologist babe with a squeaky voice has a cursed eel crawl up... well, you just have to see it to believe it. The eel turns her into a sexy killing machine impervious to bullets and plot logic. She hunts down the descendant of her enemy, a hot babe rock star.

What follows are a bunch of scenes that directly copy the original Terminator movie, including 1) A shootout at a disco, 2) A car chase 3) a shootout at a police station 4) another car chase 5) A scene where the terminator removes her own eye with an exacto knife 6)a sex scene between the hero and the heroine and 7) a big shootout finale where the terminator is "killed", only to arise from the burning wreck. The action scenes are beyond ludicrous, on a couple of occasions they are clearly blowing up model planes and trucks.

The dialog is incredibly bad, leaving one to the conclusion that the writers didn't speak English very well, and none of the actors involved cared enough to correct them when babbling this nonsense.

Not to say this movie is without its redeeming values. There are a lot of gratuitous rated R sex scenes and the thing is so corny you have to laugh at it. The opening credits are unintentionally funny.

As far as mock busters go, this one at least has something.

[mazec666 · 4/10 · 21 May 2012]

A notoriously Indonesian carbon copy of the 1984 James Cameron sci-fi masterpiece clumsily gels together scenes from the latter film with a mythical tale of the "Queen of the South Sea" in a bloody stew of excessive violence, gorgeous women and bad dubbing.

Without giving away important plot points, as if there was any workable plot whatsoever. The Queen possesses a nerdy, bimbo anthropological student (Barbara Anne Constable), which somehow turns her into a leather-clad, drop-dead killing machine that would make Rose McGowan's Cherry Darling look like a plain-Jane desk secretary.

The supporting players in the film consist of a yuppie cop (Christopher J. Hart) who has to protect a pop singer (Claudia Angelique Rademaker) for unknown reasons except for a necklace that the title character is after.

Constable (looking a lot like Valeria Golino) fits into her dominatrix role rather nicely with some trace of human emotion more than Kristana Loken's laughable T-X. But I've got to give the filmmakers credit for attempting to redo a well-known Schwarzenegger film in a third-world country with all of the determination and limited resources available at the time.

Overall, if you are a trash purist, go with this film. If you are a die-hard Terminator fan, skip this one. Two stars for the film, and two stars for the actress playing the title role: the one and only Barbara Anne Constable.

Hilariously bad - and hugely entertaining - rip off of The Terminator

[The_Void · 7/10 · 12 August 2007]

As the title suggests, Lady Terminator takes influence from the eighties classic 'The Terminator'. Successful American films often get cheap rip off versions made, but what is surprising about this one is just how much it shamelessly steals from James Cameron's famous film. It's not just the central premise - the thievery even goes down to whole scenes being taken and even certain mannerisms of the leading character! Still...considering the quality of this film, I can't see James Cameron caring too much about it! Lady Terminator really is a terrible film; but it's also great fun for all the same reasons. The build up to the Terminator-style plot takes influence from any number of films in which powerful people come back to haunt later generations of a certain family. In this case it's the Sea Queen; a woman who uses an eel to brutally kill any man who can't satisfy her. When one man thwarts her, she swears vengeance on his great granddaughter. Enter Tania Wilson: an Anthropology student who stumbles on the old lair of the Sea Queen while doing research and comes back as an unstoppable female in a leather jacket!

Lady Terminator really is pure trash, but at least its entertaining trash and there's certainly no shortage of gun fights, car chases and gory deaths. Pretty much everything in the film comes off as being stupid; nothing more so than Barbara Anne Constable in the lead role. She looks quite cool walking round in her leather jacket and trousers; but the image of her with a machine gun blasting everyone Arnie style is hard not to giggle at. There's some great dialogue in the film, and every now and again there's a little exchange or event that is sure to make the right kind of people erupt with laughter. There's also a fair amount of sex thrown into the mix too; though it seems to be clear that the director wanted to focus more on the action. It won't be hard to guess where the plot is going for anyone who has seen The Terminator; but that's not a big problem as where the plot is going isn't half as important as how it's getting there. The final ten minutes are a real blast, and the last thing that Lady Terminator rips off The Terminator is the best! Overall, this is definitely stupid crap - but its awesome stupid crap and comes recommended to the right kind of people!

A piece of Crap, except Constabl;e is HOT HOT HOT

[adoraburl · 2/10 · 21 December 2006]

okay, the brilliant and talented Ms Judi Faye and I, plus our dogs of TV fame, are watching this piece of crap right now. We agree that the best line in the film is "I'm not a lady! I'm an anthropologist!" We also confirm that Barbara Constable is HOT HOT HOT. Why she isn't in more films when she is so HOT HOT HOT is a complete mystery. She is exceptionally photogenic, despite her peculiar voice (or is she dubbed?) she could have had a wonderful career in film....right now she is about to seduce room service. I hope he can satisfy her, or his tool is toast. Joe, Snake and Tom are the backup cops who rush to the aid of Max as he does his best to defend a pop star hopeful from death at the hands of Ms Constable, now possessed by the evil spirit of the South Sea queen (who, in case you are unaware, has an eel living inside her female reproductive canal, and it bites off the sex organs of the men with whom she has sex, unless they satisfy her, which, 99.9 percent of the time, they don't.)

The Best Movie... EVER!!!!!

[stuart-129 · 10/10 · 13 January 2005]

Now that I have your attention, let me just say that this film is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Yet, at the same time, I am compelled to watch it with friends.

OK, Lady Terminator is the story of the "South Sea Queen", who puts a curse on the grandchild of this guy who, I guess, gave her satisfying sex.

Oh, it gets better.

Then, 100 years later, an anthropologist (Constable) is turned into the Lady Terminator, an evil cyborg (why cyborg, I don't know) hell-bent on killing this girl who happens to be a rising Asian Pop star.

The film then rips off "Terminator" in several scenes and descends into total madness.

It should be mentioned that there are at least two versions of this film, because the VHS version is littered with repeated footage (specificly one part where the Lady Terminator is walking down a hall), whereas the DVD has more original footage.

There is one character in this film that makes the film what it is. The Character is named "Snake", a mullet clad cop(?) who rides a tank and says things like "eat it bitch!" I'm guessing that the actor is named Adam Stardust, and if he isn't, he really should be.

So, this film is a total mess that is great for a laugh. Anyone taking this film seriously will be VERY disappointed. Then again, anyone who would take the time to read the title should suspect that the film is either a bad action movie (correct) or porn (not correct).

Indonesian insanity--fun for the whole family!

[frankfob · 7/10 · 21 July 2006]

Well, maybe the Addams Family. Completely, utterly whacked-out combination of cheese, sleaze, gore, sex, blood, explosions, shootouts, hot Asian chicks, mullet-headed stoners driving armored cars, inane dialog, brainless disco songs, guns that never run out of ammunition--all the things that make life worthwhile. Not as polished as your average Hong Kong martial arts / vampire / sorcerer flick, but with just as much if not more energy and sense of fun, intentional or otherwise. An Indonesian evil spirit called the South Seas Queen possesses the body (and not a bad one at that, judging by her frequent and, thankfully, gratuitous nudity) of an attractive Caucasian anthropologist in order to carry out a curse she placed on the great-granddaughter of one of her lovers from 100 years previously, and the possessed hottie, "The Lady Terminator", wipes out half of Jakarta to get at her. No one in their right mind watches movies like this for their story, acting, or comments on the human condition. You watch them to see a lot of shootouts, hot chicks, explosions, hot chicks, gore, hot naked chicks, stupid dialog and hot chicks who get naked while reciting stupid dialog, and this movie delivers all that in spades. "Good" and "bad" don't apply to films like this; they're beyond that kind of simplistic labeling. What they should be judged on is, do they deliver what they promise? And "Lady Terminator" certainly does that and more. You gotta see this one.

It couldda been worse!

[edchin2006 · 2/10 · 3 December 2007]

Although this film surely belongs to the realm of "Worst Pictures ever made", it can't really compete with narcolepsy inducing classics such as "Pink Flamingos" or "Eraserhead". Even Ed Woods' creations do a better job of making me feel that hours of my life have been stolen from me. (It certainly feels like hours!)

Actually, there are noticeable merits to the film. All the principal actors seem to know how to use firearms! At least they aren't afraid of them. They hold the weapons properly and don't blink when the blanks discharge. Arnold can't even do that. Ditto for all the other major action stars except Steven Segal. Of course, Segal is an actual martial arts master.

The dialog is strange, but isn't really funny. It's rather what you might expect from a film which has been dubbed from Indonesian. Subtitles would likely have been a lot funnier. (Subtitles are necessarily shorter - so you have to guess what was left out.) As for the "it's so bad; it's good" - it isn't that bad. So, it's really bad. Even a laugh track couldn't save this film. You've been warned!

An Entertainment Tour de Force!

[Cinemanly · 9/10 · 6 January 2005]

Yawn! Some of our fellow IMDb'ers simply don't have a sense of humor. Note previous reviews were so many haughtily sniff about how "bad" this movie is. Well, of course it's bad! But this film brings the old Mae West line to life... when it's bad, it is just so, so good.

I was really impressed this Indonesian effort (not "India," as too many IMDb'ers had it) spent the effort and resources that are inconsistent with such outright B-movies. Probably some of it was stock footage, but we've got explosions, car chases and crashes, helicopters, and pure, non-stop action. In addition, the production deserves credit for rounding up the Caucasian actors in an effort to cater to the American market... since the actors were probably speaking the native language in the Indonesian version (there was obviously an English version, albeit still dubbed), I'd guess the call went out to the round eyes who happened to be living in the country. Sure, the plastic pretty boy hero would give Hollywood a run for its unimaginative casting money (where even today's character actors have to look superficially beautiful), but I appreciated the "Lady Terminator," Barbara Anne Constable, very much. Not only did she have the right curves, but she put her heart into the kick-ass role. She certainly lived up to the name of one of the titles of the film, "Nasty Hunter," by targeting the most sensitive part of the male anatomy. I also liked the totally one-dimensional character of "Snake," the prototypical stoned surfer dude. What a boneheaded film... but what a treat.

Gorgeously Inept Trash Gem!

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 6/10 · 14 August 2008]

***SPOILERS*** "Lady Terminator" (aka. "Pembalasan ratu pantai selatan") of 1988 is a wonderful Trash flick that is both hilariously inept and outrageously entertaining and awesome. The film is basically the epitome of Trash-cinema - of what we love about trash-cinema, that is. "Lady Terminator" shamelessly plagiarizes whole parts of the 1984 classic "The Terminator" and it does not make the slightest attempt to hide this plagiarism. And it does so in a manner that is impossible not to love for a fan of cult-cinema. The film already begins oddly, with an odd quote, and a bizarre 'South Sea Queen' (a sort of evil deity/witch) who kills her lovers during sex in a quite... unorthodox manner. Her 100th husband, however, manages to break her spell by giving her an orgasm and pulling a snake (!) out of her vagina. The evil Queen then vows to take revenge on his great-great-granddaughter, before walking to the bottom of the sea for a hundred years... (Awesomely) Odd enough, and all this happens before the film even really begins. One hundred years later, a sexy anthropology student named Tania (Barbara Anne Constable) decides to travel to the place in the sea, where the South Sea Queen is supposed to reside - and is subsequently turned into an indestructible killing machine with the sole purpose of killing the great-great-granddaughter, who happens to be a sexy bar-singer...

The film's storyline is extremely odd, to say at least, and this oddity, as well as the absolutely delightful trashiness. The film is so obviously ripping off "The Terminator" that one could easily call it plagiarism - but so what? Which film would be a better model for rip-offs than the 1984 cult classic, and what would be a greater rip-off than this gem of trash-cinema. The film includes extreme bloodshed and everything else one would desire in a trash flick - sleaze, gore, odd dialogue, weird characters, delightfully inept performances and an enormous amount of camp cult material. Lady Terminator mows down hundreds of people with Machine Guns throughout the film. Funnily, the access to fully automatic weapons is quite easy in the film (in Indonesia Uzis seem to be the standard equipment of every hotel clerk. When not massacring people in places like malls or police stations, the lethal lady (Barbara Ann Constable) kills people by squashing their willies during sex, and does quite about everything that Arnold Schwarzenegger did in "Terminator" (including a self-inflicted eye-operation, and for no apparent reason). The actions taken by everybody else are completely illogical (in the beginning, for example, an elderly man gives Tanja a book that describes the way to the South Sea Queen's residence - even though he is aware of what will happen). Besides Barbara Ann Constable, Claudia Angelique Rademaker makes another nice female lead as the target Erica, the sexy bar singer. The terrible 80s hairstyles even increase the wonderfully trashy 80s flair. Among other odd characters, "Lady Terminator" also features a guy with the ugliest mullet ever caught on screen. Overall, "Lady Terminator" is positively one of the stupidest films ever - and one of the most immensely entertaining at the same time. No lover of Exploitation/Trash/Cult-cinema should miss this gem of camp extravaganza!

Best "Terminator?" Movie since T2: HA HA

[lareval · 5/10 · 3 September 2021]

This is a case in which is so-bad-it's-good. I would watch this movie a couple of times rather than any other Terminator sequel from third onwards. The plot makes you laugh, the chick is hot and it's not a bore. It's bad, but gourgeously bad.

This movie spells BAD! B-A-D!!!

[emm · 2/10 · 28 December 1998]

Bad acting, bad lighting, bad story, bad plot, bad dialogue, bad as it wants to be. Its only saving grace would be a cult semi-following. From India, this is a totally absurd rip-off of THE TERMINATOR that is based on the fictional legend of the South Sea Queen who finds men as bait to kill. Our invincible anti-heroine in a leather jacket fires endless rounds of ammunition for reasons perfectly unexplainable. Can you survive 80 mindless minutes of purified cinematic junk? For sick and depraved apartment dwellers only!

SUCKED

[blt989 · 29 September 1999]

SUCKED BIGTIME. The plot was a total rip-off from Terminator. And they just threw in some junk about the queen of the sea. Some scenes were completely unnecessary to the plot, thin as it may be. Additionally, if stealing someone else's plot wasn't enough, they had to lift scenes and actual LINES right out of it. That's really low. Although, if you're a person who likes to watch bad movies, this is the movie for you. The acting is horrible. Terrible. Cheesy. The rest of the movie is just plain unrealistic. That lady terminator person never has to reload. Ever. And where does she get all that ammo anyway? The director does a poor job of molding the queen of the sea story in with the terminator story. I mean, one minute you're watching some woman run away from another person who is out to kill her, for some ridiculous reason. Then you see the same deranged woman getting tortured by sea snakes...?? What is up with that? Bottom line: this movie isn't worth burning the calories to stick it in your VCR. Leave

In one word "Terrible"

[sirarthurstreebgreebling II · 2/10 · 8 April 2002]

And that is a real statement coming from someone who like's Andy Milligan and William Beaudine!

A witch has turned into a snake and is eating penis's at every chance she can get for some reason (quite funny) and she has vowed vengance (god knows why) and being a south sea's demon (naturally) she can deliver on her promises.

100 odd yrs later and were up to the hilt in the dire 80's, the clothes and hair are the worst offenders and one man sports the worst "Mulett" I have ever seen on film. Into this comes out Terminator clone, she walks around in a crappy jacket shooting people ala Arnie in Terminator, until the "show down".

Worth a look once, but I warn you this would make an boiling oil enema seem like a good idea

CULT ACTION FUN!!

[zombi4life · 7/10 · 8 November 2004]

This is way fun a lot, I mean a lot of action this is a way cool rip off of the terminator. Now this is a CULT movie so over the top the story the acting and the best part is the violence if you are a fan of campy 80s action movies then check out you will like it.I was so happy with it the DVD is good to also the tagline RULZZ SHE MATES....THEN SHE TERMINATS LOL!!!!!This one needs to go down as a cult classic!!!Also she never runs out of bullets its so aubsurd and she cant die!!she is possessed by the south sea queen?the story is so simple man its just non stop action and the body count is so so high and the last 30 of the film is the best!!Go find this and yes buy its very worth it!!!

Ouch, this movie must have cost a fortune.

[daniel_diesing · 1/10 · 20 May 2002]

lady Terminator is only about and hour of film recycled and put into a movie. They really did not even effectively copy terminator, and they had this part where she cuts her eye out, washes it, and puts it back in just to copy the scharzenager blockbuster. the editing on this film is the worst I have ever seen and makes me very sad.

So bad is GREAT

[donchavito · 8/10 · 4 January 2008]

Lady Terminator is one of those movies that are so bad you find them great after watching it.

The film is full of goofs, nonsense dialogs, bloody shoot outs, crazy car chases, 80's music & fashion, mythology, explicit sex, nudity....

I saw it at the International Sitges Film Festival in 2004 and the whole cinema went nuts with Lady Terminator clapping and making fun of the scenes.

If you want to have a really good time watch it with friends and make it a double program along Virgins From Hell (another flick gem from Indonesia).

Alright, bring in the Panzer

[film-critic · 7/10 · 1 November 2009]

Comedy is a difficult genre to pull off. The best sort of comedies are ones that don't try, they are funny, original, and entertaining throughout. Modern audiences can smell a fake comedy miles away – it is those that do not try that somehow make the biggest splash. "Lady Terminator" is one of those films. Absolutely it is not supposed to be a comedy; its intention is to be a full fledged action film packed with sex, violence, and of course, the teaspoon of the mystical. It is a complete and utter, nearly frame by frame, retelling of the original American film, "The Terminator", equipped with repeatable lines, iconic images, and tons of tons of explosions. Oh, did I mention that a Panzer tank comes out of nowhere? If this doesn't already tickle your taste buds or prove that the Wayans' humor can be better found elsewhere, well, then … I just don't know what you may find entertaining or humorous any longer. Let me repeat, a Panzer tank comes when called! "Lady Terminator" offers nothing the conventional film could guarantee. There is horrid acting, misplaced dubs, and a story that seemed like it was written scene by scene – so why did I laugh and enjoy this piece of garbage? "Lady Terminator" was grade-A B-entertainment. The shots were cheap, the scenes were convoluted, and nothing connected (really), but this little film never tried to be something it wasn't. From the first scene until the last, "Lady Terminator" remained gory, violent, and full of "Terminator" iconography. My next question is … what more do we need?

The story is a rehash of the South Sea Queen mythos, where a demon (or God) of the sea cannot quench her physical satisfaction, so she kills all her potential lovers. One man is able to satisfy, and she instantly places a curse on his great-great granddaughter. Jump to the future, and an anthropologist is on the hunt for the South Sea Queen's castle under the sea and ironically transforms into a Terminator creature determined to kill, kill, and finally kill the person who carries what the great-great grandfather stole from her many years ago. It is part sci-fi (though I couldn't tell you which part), it is part fantasy, and it pure uncut hilarious. "Lady Terminator" is one of those great films that you find, sit down with a group of friends, have some beers, and laugh endlessly. Then, the film carries – it goes from one friend to another until cult status is reached. Despite perhaps not knowing anything about it, upon watching you will see the cult ability all over it. The "Terminator" references, the fantastic final battle, and everything in between. Made in 1988, "Lady Terminator" again carries nothing for the average film snob to discover. There is bad acting from the beginning. The lack of continuity between the shots is disruptive at first, but as the film continues to escalate from one battle to the next, it seems to make sense. This is an ultra-low budget film that was created out of Indonesia to help a booming film market. There is an interesting documentary within this film that discusses how and why films of this nature were created. Sure, there is no budget, no great actors, and sloppy editing (the list could go on), but this film has heart. It tries and it succeeds as a film like "Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter" did. It is one of those undiscovered cult films that needs to be pulled out of the dark.

Unlike most US Hollywood films, there is little to say about this film. The structure was faulty and the concept was riddled with holes, but unlike American films, it pushes through. It continues to add onto itself by creating one skewed iconic references after another. Mando Macabro has done a fabulous job of releasing this DVD. While the transfer suffers (only because it is probably the only transfer available), what it makes up in are special features and previews of upcoming releases. If "Lady Terminator" doesn't inspire you to watch more from the Indonesian catalogue – well, one should reconsider themselves a worldwide cinephile.

Overall, I loved this film. It isn't a film for anyone, if you loved "LA Confidential" or can't get enough "Gladiator", than I don't suggest putting this film in your player – but if you are a fan of explosions and nudity, random Panzer tanks, and cheap James Cameron – than watch this film. There is a thought I had; perhaps this redefine of the "Terminator" film is trying to show us what the core of the original "Terminator" was all about. Was it a sad story about the future, or merely a gun friendly film? The world may never know. Watch this movie. Try to find it or pay the $20+ to get it. You will not be disappointed. Better than any "Transformers 2" could ever wish to be!

Grade: **** 1/2 out of *****

From The Age Of Infinite Ammo...We Give You, Lady Terminator!

[meddlecore · 4/10 · 21 January 2023]

What a wild, oddly high budget ride, of absolute weirdness.

Lady Terminator is a totally bizarre Indonesian action-horror flick, featuring, mostly, American actors.

It all begins with some background lore, about a mythological character known as the Queen of the South Seas, who, in a bid to find a man who can truly please her...bangs all sorts of dudes- who end dying, from having their penises eat by the eel that has taken up residence in her vagina.

That is, before she meets a man that actually hits that G spot, and is able to extract the snake-like creature...which then magically transforms into a knife, which he is able to defeat her with.

Angered by this, she curses the man, saying that she will return in 100 years to target his grand daughter.

Fast Forward that 100 years, and we find ourselves following an American anthropologist, who sets out in search of the sunken lair of said Queen of the South Seas.

Which she manages to find after some really poorly edited sequences, laden with bad 80's humour.

Only to be tied down, and infiltrated by the vagina-eel, which allows the demonic Queen to possess her body...which she plans on using as a conduit, to hunt down the last remaining granddaughter in the family line of the man that she had previously cursed.

And hence, the Lady Terminator is born (played by American actress Barbara Anne Constable).

Wielding a military grade assault weapon, with an infinite amount of ammo (and no need to ever reload)...she goes on a mission to hunt down., and kill, this young woman, named Erica (played by Indonesian actress Claudia Angelique Rademaker).

Though not before gunning down several dozen local civilians in the process.

This wanton disregard of covertness, puts her on the radar of the local police, which are led by a white guy named Max McNeil (played by Christopher J. Hart), who doesn't speak much, after losing his wife to a rape murder in Minnesota.

He sets out with his A-Team of paramilitary goons (most notably a mulleted surfer dude named Snake) to hunt down and eliminate the Lady terminator, before she is able to kill Erica- whom he awkwardly falls in love with in the process.

What ensues is, more or less, pure action, with a little horror, and a forced love story sprinkled in for good measure.

For such a bad film, it seemed (inexplicably) to have a relatively budget.

Considering the amount of stuff that gets blown up in the film.

But they clearly spent the bulk of the FX budget on pyro (and stuff to blow up), as opposed to, well, anything else.

Because, as an action film, it's really quite entertaining, but in regards to the other aspects of the plot and storyline...it's very much of the so incredibly bad it's hilariously good quality.

So expect to be entertained (unless you can't get around the running plotholes present in many old action films).

In the end, there's only one way to kill the Lady Terminator, though.

And that certainly isn't by fire or force.

Only magic can win the day, and secure what is probably one of the most ridiculous love stories ever captured for a straight to VHS market.

It's kind of a great film, for how truly bad it really is.

If only it spawned a sequel.

Let's hope this one gets the reboot it so greatly deserves (this is sarcasm btw).

4.5 out of 10.

Hasta La Vista, Baby OH BABY!

[Coventry · 10/10 · 26 July 2008]

Wow! Phew! This has never happened to me before … I've never been in love as much as I'm in love with Lady Terminator. Ours is a marriage made in heaven and I swear I'll love her till the end of times. She's quite the lady, all right, but she's also so much more. She's the duchess of sleaze, the queen of exploitation, the empress of tastelessness and the goddess of rip-offs! This is quite possibly the most outrageously amusing movie ever made and all those people complaining about how awful and unoriginal it is should either lay off drinking entire bottles of vinegar and/or make the effort to research what the (foreign) exploitation film industry is all about, anyway. How do you recognize the ideal cult movie classic? Well, if you're witnessing gratuitous nudity, bloody killings, eels crawling out a woman's vagina and inexplicably changing into a daggers and delightfully cheesy quotes like "I shall now retire to the see but return in a hundred years to have my vengeance on your great-great-granddaughter…"), during the first five minutes – even before the opening credits appeared on screen – THEN I'd say you found yourself the ideal cult movie classic. And it even gets better… Much better, in fact!

One hundred years ago, the malignant Queen of the South Sea swore to kill the female descendant of the man she loved but whom betrayed her. To fulfill this promise, the Queen's evil spirit possesses the luscious body of an innocent young anthropologist student (Barbara Anne Constable in her sole but unforgettable performance) and turns her into an indestructible, unstoppable, sex-driven and relentless killing machine. Armed with heavy artillery and a literally endless amount of ammunition, Lady Terminator goes on her mission and she isn't too concerned about the trail of collateral damage she leaves. Our heroine quickly finds her target but she – Erica – receives protection from a clique of hilariously implausible cop characters, one with a ludicrous mullet. I honestly can't imagine anyone who watches "Lady Terminator", with the correct attitude and/or in the right state of mind, won't tremendously enjoy it! Everything about this movie is so WRONG; I simply love it! The sudden change in tone, from an Indonesian folklore myth about the Queen of the South Sea into a wannabe American Sci-Fi imitation of one of the genre's greatest classics, is stupendously amusing, the character drawings are wondrously inept, the dialogs as well as the acting performances and the English dubbing are completely bonkers to listen to and – last but not least – the use of violence is so unimaginably excessive and graphical!

If you love James Cameron's "The Terminator" (and who doesn't, right?), you actually should watch "Lady Terminator" and try and consider it as some sort of crazy homage. As soon as the possessed girl walks out of the sea butt-naked, the shamelessly copied ideas and sequences of "The Terminator" become impossible to list. Almost identical to how Arnold Schwarszenegger did it, Lady Terminator dodges shotgun bullets, drives a car into a police station in broad daylight, performs eyeball operations on herself and makes a whole lot of victims before she reaches Sarah Connor… I mean, Erica. This movie literally has everything: gore, sex, stupidity, bizarre characters, a typically 80's pop-song sung from start to finish, an incredibly inappropriate "we're falling in love" sub plot and a stoned 80's dude with the ugliest mullet hairdo ever. Please marry me, Lady Terminator?

exploitation with cult following

[trashgang · 6/10 · 19 January 2012]

Lady Terminator cashed in on the success of The Terminator (1984). It was made in Indonesia and had some troubles making it. Still, the flick looks awful but had some following. By now it's still in the top 5 list of flicks coming out of Indonesia. It surely was hell for first time actress Barbara Anne Constable. She was a professional dancer and model in the UK but took the opportunity to make a flick. It was said due the story (about the South Sea Queen) that it only would be released in Indonesia but it didn't. It was badly overdubbed and crossed the seas to the States and Europe. Barbara wasn't happy with that fact because she had a lot of nudity in it and because pictures became available of her nudity. She had a few near-death experiences by a car door passing her head by millimeters after an explosion. A falling sailboat mast almost killed her and she even died by not seeing an open well and just escaped it by putting out her arms to be saved. But she even walked through real glass in stead of sugar glass ripping open her leg, glass one side in out the other. But people really died, a crew member was asleep when a truck drove over his head.

Years later Barbara came beware off the cult following by googling her name. And I agreed, this is pure exploitation with a lot of gratuitous nudity from Barbara. Full of cutting and editing mistakes like the rip-off of a Terminator scene were she removes her left eye but one shot later she is replacing her right eye. The effects used are very cheap and laughable, speeding up the reel for chasing scene's for example. Laserbeams coming out of her eyes. Eels being placed in vaginas with knickers still on ( a thing Barbara didn't knew that they were adding that in the editing room). Boring sex scene's and having intercause with knickers on. Bloody shootings that go on forever and I can go on and on. This is pure exploitation with a cheesy topping. It's even so loved that it will get a Blu Ray release in 2012 and they are trying to get Barbara involved, one to look forward to.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 2,5/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5