‘Members Club’ Review
Stars: Liam Noble, Dean Kilbey, Perry Benson, Mark Manero, David Alexander, Juliet Cowan, Charley Burling, Barbara Smith, Steve Oram, Alan Ford | Written and Directed by Marc Coleman
Members Club is a new horror comedy about Wet Dreams, a troupe of male strippers who were at their prime back when The Full Monty was a thing. Now they’re well into middle age, their middles are well out of shape and the bookings are drying up. Drying up to the point that their manager, Deano (Liam Noble; The Marchioness Disaster, National Treasure) has just dropped them. But not before managing to book them a gig at a 12-year-old’s birthday party.
Refusing to admit defeat, or face the prospect of getting a real job, Alan (Dean Kilbey; Burnt Flowers, All the Money in the World) takes charge and soon has a well-paid gig lined up. Of course, we know there’s a catch, but all Alan, Neil (Perry Benson; Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday, The Last Heist), Ratboy (Mark Manero; In the Earth, Young, Gifted and Broke), and Carly (David Alexander; Green Street Hooligans, The Hobbyhorser) can think of is the promise of their first big payday in years.
Writer/director Marc Coleman (ManFish, Grindsploitation 4: Meltsploitation) has delivered a film that’s a mashup of The Full Monty and Suspiria as the lads find out the hard way that a witches coven led by Joanne (Juliet Cowan; Back to Black, The Sarah Jane Adventures) needs them, or a certain part of them, for a ritual to resurrect their founder Agnes (Charley Burling), who was executed in the 16th century. Of course, this being a horror comedy, complications and mishaps abound.
Chief among those complications is the fact that Alan’s estranged daughter Daisy (Barbara Smith; I Am Vengeance, EastEnders) is part of the coven, though she’s as surprised as he is about the night’s events. While Members Club does get some mileage out of this, it turns into some overly serious dialogue about parenting that feels very out of sync with the rest of the film.
Considerably more successful are bits involving Blind Brian (Steve Oram; A Dark Song, This Is Christmas) as the one-eyed ex-amateur dart player who serves as the coven’s enforcer and a talking cheese and pineapple hedgehog voiced by Alan Ford (Alice Through the Looking, An American Werewolf in London). Most of the humour in Members Club however revolves around the leads’ members and the witches’ need for them. So if dick jokes, and to a lesser degree fart and poop jokes, offend you, this may not be your kind of film. Thankfully, the cast members rise to the occasion and deliver them with enough conviction that even some of the film’s more flaccid gags get a chuckle.
In its more serious moments, Members Club effects artist Steve Braund (Fluxx, Don’t Cry for Bombardier) manages to deliver some fairly gory scenes involving not just severed dicks but a tongue that can’t stop wagging even after it has been cut out, Agnes in her true form, and the odd bloody death. They’re all practical, and well done for a low-budget film.
The cast is on point here, staying in character and giving them a bit of depth rather than simply treating it as an extended Benny Hill skit and hamming it up. The exception is Steve Oram whose character is designed to be over the top. Their efforts frequently elevate the material and make it funnier than it should be.
Overall, Members Club is, apart from some of the scenes between Alan and Daisy, a fast-paced and funny film. As long as you don’t mind the lowbrow humour, you should get a good laugh out of it. However, the title might not work as well in non-UK countries, might I suggest they rename it “Black Magik Mike”?
*** 3/5
Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment released Members Club as a Digital Download in the UK yesterday, October 21st.
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