Crew
Director – Ernest Farino, Screenplay – Joseph Dougherty & Dave Edison, Producers – David DeCoteau & John Schouweiler, Photography – Thomas L. Callaway, Music – John Massari, Mechanical Effects – S.P.F.X. Studios (Supervisor – Steve Patino), Makeup Effects – S.O.T.A. F/X, Production Design – Blair Martin. Production Company – Fries Entertainment Inc./Cinema Home Video.
Cast
Claire Wren (Galatea ‘Gaily’ Morton), Stacy Haiduk (Alison Ruger), Michael Cerveris (Daniel Emerson), David Naughton (Detective Clifford Dunn), Bruce Davison (Dr Albert Morton), Scott Burkholder (Tobby Worth), John J. York (Craig Semple), Paul Lieber (Oscar Harbold), Brian Backer (Norman Austin), Nick Tate (Duncan), John DeMita (Agent Spoon), Brenda Swanson (Miss Fairweather), Cindy Brooks (Girl in T-Bird), Hank Garrett (Captain Grover)
Plot
Galatea ‘Gaily’ Morton, the sister of NASA scientist Dr Albert Morton, goes to court to charge property developer Daniel Emerson with raping her. However, Emerson’s four colleagues stand up to give evidence supporting Emerson and he is acquitted. In her upset, Gaily throws herself from the roof of the court building. Five years later, Emmerson’s associates are being targeted and killed by various people. These are disguises worn by Gaily who has been rebuilt in a shape-changing robotic body by her brother. She changes what she looks like to lure and then kill each of the men. At the same time, courtroom sketch artist Alison Ruger revives the case as part of a book she is preparing and digs into Albert’s background.
The late 1980s/1990s were overrun with a series of films about killer androids and cyborgs. The genre started with the hits of The Terminator (1984) and RoboCop (1987) after which there was a host of films on the subject from the mostly B-budget likes of R.O.T.O.R. (1988), Circuity Man (1990), Class of 1999 (1990), Eve of Destruction (1991), American Cyborg: Steel Warrior (1992) and Project: Shadowchaser (1992), while Albert Pyun who made the genre his own for a time with a series of kickboxing cyborg films Cyborg (1989), Knights (1993), Nemesis (1993) and sequels, Heatseeker (1994) and Omega Doom (1996), along with a good many others.
Steel and Lace is one of these films, although it is never spells out if what we have is an Android or a Cyborg film. What scientist Bruce Davison does to resurrect Claire Wren is not specified at all – it looks as though it is her brain inside a machine body but the scenes do not make it clear. It is also a film that makes you do a double-take at what poor taste it seems to be conceived in – woman is raped and kills herself, is resurrected in a machine body and then uses the powers of being a shape-changing android to seduce and kill her rapists. It is essentially I Spit on Your Grave (1978) reconceived as a killer android/cyborg film like The Demolitionist (1996).
Steel and Lace is ridiculous on almost all levels. One of the more amusing things is how it is determined to make chief rapist Michael Cerveris into the ultimate scumbag. He is a Yuppie real estate developer who wears a snappy suit and has his hair in a stubby ponytail. As a realtor we get to see scenes where he forces an old man out of his house by employing strongarm mafioso tactics. Later when one of his associates is killed by Gaily, the other colleagues ask for a minute’s silence, which is something he only begrudgingly grants.
Steel and Lace is often a film that does not seem intended to be realistic in any way but operates more in terms of a cartoonish action movie unreality. Gaily has the ability to adopt extremely lifelike disguises, usually as a woman oozing seductivity from every pore, but also appearing as a male FBI agent. One of the more entertainingly absurd scenes is where she makes out with John J. York, peels off her skin and opens her chest as a large drill bit emerges out of her stomach to bore right through him.
The film toplines Bruce Davison who has a lengthy career in genre and mainstream works ever since his appearance in Willard (1971). Stacy Haiduk who plays the courtroom sketch artist had appeared as Lana Lang in tv’s Superboy (1988-92) and went on to appear in seaQuest DSV (1993-4). Michael Cerveris who plays the scumbag yuppie made his second film role here after extensive credits on Broadway and is best known in genre material as The Observer in tv’s Fringe (2008-13). David Naughton, who is mostly remembered for An American Werewolf in London (1981), appears as Stacy Haiduk’s detective boyfriend, while Australian actor Nick Tate is best known for Space: 1999 (1975-7).
Director Ernest Farino had worked in visual effects and as visual effects supervisor since the late 1970s with credits on films such as The Thing (1982), The Terminator, The Abyss (1989) and Dune (2000), among others. Steel and Lace was Farino’s debut as director. He went on to direct two of the Josh Kirby juveniles for Charles Band with Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Planet of the Dino-Knights (1995) and Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Journey to the Magic Cavern (1996). The film is also produced by prolific low-budget genre director David DeCoteau.
Trailer here