Karen Chase
Laurie Collins
Soundtrack
Vendetta
Director
Writers
Overview
On its surface, Roger Corman-produced Vendetta is a neon-tinted, direct-to-video exploitation thriller about a stuntwoman who gets herself locked in a corrupt prison to enact revenge. But step outside the prison walls, and the film serves as a fantastic, accidental time capsule of the mid-1980s Los Angeles underground music scene. Rather than filling its bar and club scenes with generic Hollywood studio rock, the filmmakers went straight to Hollywood’s actual punk scene, weaponizing raw garage-punk energy to soundtrack the film’s gritty, trashy realism.
The Screaming Sirens Hijack
The film’s absolute crowning jewel for punk collectors is an extended live club sequence featuring the Screaming Sirens. Formed in Hollywood in 1983, the Sirens were a legendary, trailblazing all-female band that fused first-wave punk rock with wild, trashy country-billy influences (often referred to as cowpunk).
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The Live Performance: In the film, the band commands the stage in a smoke-filled club, blasting out their chaotic, high-energy tracks.
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The Lineup Cameos: What makes this an essential piece of punk trivia is that the band members don't just play music; they actually appear in the movie. Punk icons Pleasant Gehman (a legendary figure in the L.A. punk scene, writer, and frontwoman) and Rosie Flores (famed punk/rockabilly guitarist) appear on screen, bringing authentic, untamed Hollywood counterculture right into a mainstream exploitation flick.
The film's original score was composed by David Newman. Before he became a massive Hollywood composer scoring blockbusters like The Nutty Professor and Ice Age, Newman was cutting his teeth on B-movies. For Vendetta, he crafted a driving, synth-heavy score that perfectly captures the anxiety of the era. The audio mixing creates a massive contrast: the sleek, robotic, mechanical sounds of the synthesizer dominate the oppressive prison scenes, while raw, distorted, loose-cannon guitar rock signifies the freedom (and danger) of the streets outside.
No official commercial soundtrack album exists, making the raw audio captured within the film's master mix a highly prized artifact for 80s L.A. punk preservationists. The explosive club sequence where the Screaming Sirens tear through their set while the plot thickens in the crowd, capturing the exact look, sound, and sweaty atmosphere of a mid-80s Hollywood dive bar.
Pleasant Gehman’s appearance bridges this movie directly to the real-life L.A. punk history she helped write through her fanzines (Lobotomy) and her close ties to bands like The Cramps and The Gun Club.
Trailer
Cast
Karen Chase
Laurie Collins
Sandy Martin
Kay Butler
Kin Shriner
Steve Nelson
Roberta Collins
Miss Dice
Michelle Newkirk
Bonnie Cusack
Marshall R. Teague
Paul Donahue
Greg Bradford
Joe-Bob
Mark von Zech
Randy
Pleasant Gehman
Screaming Sirens band member
Media
