From film to web series, Jane Clark’s horror/comedy, Crazy Bitches returns to your living room screen!
It’s not surprise, Jane Clark has been kicking ass and taking names in the film world for quite some time now. The award-winning Jane(ha)-of –all film trades is no stranger to producing insanely good content for our wonderful community.
Clark and her band of bitches first appeared on the festival circuit, and in our living rooms, in 2014 with the feature film. After accumulating a plethora of devoted fans to the horror/comedy film, which follows a bunch of women on a gal’s weekend getaway who are murdered one by one, Clark was eager to bring the next installment of the bitch business back into our lives. This time it’s with a webseries!
Ranch Wellness plays host to a gathering of women, and some GBFs, for what is supposed to be a relaxing escape from big city stresses. A fresh batch of new arrivals is given a glimpse at their schedules that include nutrition, yoga, massage therapy and intimate workshops on reclaiming their vaginas. Sounds pleasant, right? What could possibly go wrong?
Season Two
Season two opens with a bang, or should I say stab, when soap star Stacy Cordona is brutally murdered in her room before checking out of the ranch, just as the new guests arrive. This leads us down a twisted road of murder, mayhem and the “who dun it” question throughout the entire season.
Clark brings back some familiar faces from the original cast and also introduces us to some fabulous newcomers to the clan. Guinevere Turner (The L Word, American Psycho, Charlie Says) and Cathy DeBuono (Snapshots, A perfect Ending, Along Came Lola) reclaim their queen bitch titles from the original production. “Many of the actors in the feature became fast friends in the course of shooting,” said Clark. “We see each other regularly so it felt a little bit like I was throwing a party, to be honest.”
Aussi Actress to join the cast
Mandahla Rose (All About E, Forever Not Maybe, BIFL) joins the cast for the second season as the character Pandora and instantly delights the camera lens with her presence.
“It was quite the honor when Jane asked if I’d like to be part of Crazy Bitches,” said Rose. “Being able to work with such talented people on a location shoot! Lucky, lucky me.”
Crazy Bitches the feature film and Crazy Bitches saw a five year gap from one another and I was wondering if anything changed in the vision of the writer/director. “The message has stayed the same,” said Clark. “Our differences, our flaws, our boldness, our audacious intelligence or oddball creativity, these things are what make us perfect. But expectations set by the media, our peers, society and, to some extent, our family push a different definition of perfection – a superficial, and limiting one that is, for most of us, unattainable and should be undesirable.”
The series exhibits and emphasizes these aspects in the characters portrayed on screen. You get to see a gay man obsessed with body image, an actress coming to the end of her career, and her marriage, a mother and daughter duo trying to find some common ground and two best friends who are continuously in competition with one another. Clark made sure to continue this message from film to series but also wanted to change the tone with the present.
“Our fabric of society has split open revealing so much hate and anger,” said Clark. It is more important than ever to consider the things you say to one another and the words you use.”
While these prominent themes are apparent through the viewer lens, the show also offers quite a bit of slapstick, laugh out loud, and bust a gut, comedy. I fell in love with the Ranch Wellness staff. It has a very Downton-esq quality to it where the staff would gossip about the guests and the guests would gossip about each other. You have the ranch Casanova, trying, and usually succeeding, in sleeping with every and all available vagina in the guest rooms. Then there is the calm and centered yogi who, on the outside and to your face, is very calm and Zen. But behind closed doors complains about the privilege that exudes from each of the women. This is just the tip of iceberg!
Hearthrob Cathy DeBuono
Heart-eyed heartthrob Cathy DeBuono plays massage therapist and Reiki master Teddi on the show who is always attempting to keep the peace among staff and guests. She has her hands full, no pun intended, not only with her clients, not only with the yoga instructor girlfriend, Eleni (Jessica Graham), but also with the dead bodies starting to pile up. “Preparing for CB is a lot about the relationships between your character and all of the others,” said DeBuono. “Especially in season two, these things become layered and complicated. It’s part of the fun not only as an actor, but as a viewer it adds this great sort of puzzle to the already existing murder mystery.”
Murder, sex, murder, more sex, murder, day drinking, gossip, self sex … wait, what?
Yes! As if murders, day drinking and two-partner sexcapades weren’t enough, Clark also incorporated an intimate moment for Mandahla Rose, her hand, and a laptop screen. “I didn’t have to prepare for much of the gory/murder stuff,” said Rose. “But I did have to do a lot of ADR for my masturbation scene, which was quite the experience! I loved learning about my character, Pandora, as each scene unfolded.” I won’t spoil the fun as to which scene and episode this magic is in.
Not only does Crazy Bitches deliver an epic and hilarious story it also incorporates music from some of the most bad ass and influential indie female rock musicians the music world has to offer. Each episode ends with an entire music video through the scrolling credits which leaves Clark’s viewers instantly heading to Google to find out more. “I have a deep sense of gratitude to these amazing talents and so I thought this might be a way for me to give back,” said Clark. “We gave them a stage so to speak, rather than putting their music behind a scene where the actors and story are the focus. The search introduced me to a whole new group of artists, which is exciting.” So if and when you decide to let these crazy bitches back into your home, be sure to stick around through the credits to hear some killer tunes from some killer bands.
Crazy Bitches season two was a super fun watch for me. I love that the actors from the original film came back together for Clark’s vision into webseries-dom. Not only does the horror/thriller element remain, it is entertaining to the max to see if each character can survive themselves, let alone a killer on the loose.
Just one question for me remains: Who did it?
“Wouldn’t YOU like to know?! Take the ride and have fun getting to that answer.” – Cathy DeBuono.
“The butler! The French guy! (Always blame the sexy French guy). – Guinevere Turner.
“I actually have no idea!” – Mandahla Rose.
“You’ll find out in Season 5!” – Jane Clark