‘One final performance… to die for’
Members Club is a 2024 comedy horror film about Wet Dreams, a middle-aged male stripper group, who take one last gig at a rural working men’s club only to discover they are to become sacrifices in a plot to raise a murderous 16th-century witch from the dead.
Written and directed by Marc Coleman, the film stars Dean Kilbey (ManFish, Boiling Point), Perry Benson (Love Honour and Obey, This is England, Benidorm), Barbara Smith, Juliet Cowan (Culprits, Cuckoo, Motherland), Mark Monero (Sid and Nancy, Free Fire), Steve Oram (Sightseers, The World’s End), David Schaal (The Inbetweeners, Down Terrace), Alan Ford (Snatch, Cockneys vs. Zombies, Toast of London), Liam Noble (Peep Show, ManFish) and Peter Andre.
Plot:
Wet Dreams, a middle-aged male stripper group, has hit rock bottom. After a string of disastrous gigs, the gang considers disbanding. Alan, the group’s happy-go-lucky frontman, takes over the business and books the boys a lucrative and mysterious gig in rural Essex. But when the group arrive at the desolate club, their night quickly takes a dark turn when they find themselves tangled up in a plot to raise a murderous 16th-century witch from the dead…
Writer/director Marc Coleman commented: “I’m really excited for the world to see Members Club. We’ve been working on this project from script to screen for over 2 years and I can’t wait to show audiences what we’ve been up to. It’s a middle-aged Magic Mike meets a British From Dusk Till Dawn”
Raghav ’Gav’ Mukerji, producer, said: “The world has been calling for a stripper-killing witch film for years and we were brave enough to do it and make it as balls to the walls mental as we could. It’s a testament to our director’s ability that there’s enough substance, heart and craft in the project to have the audience walk away feeling something too.”
Speaking about how the project came to be, Kevin Harvey of Black Water Pictures, said: “When Gav and Marc approached Black Water with this project, we jumped at the chance to bring to market this highly original and frankly hilarious riot of a horror comedy.”
Reviews:
“For the first 45 minutes Members Club is a laugh riot, as coarse and Essex as you like, as the hapless strippers realise just what mess they’ve got themselves into. Sadly the middle section, in which the various members of the group reckon with their own failures, rather drags, although things pick up for the final battle with the witch.” Bloody Flicks
“Members Club succeeds at 70% of the movie it wants to be. Weak central performances from Kilbey and Noble are saved by a stellar supporting cast. The humour is broad, and the horror is unsuccessful, but the movie stays afloat with its charm and its wanting to entertain its audience.” ★★½ The Fright Club
“The film is an overall fun romp that makes its well-past-their-prime male strippers a rather likable bunch for whom it is easy to cheer, and to hope for their survival. Members Club boasts additional heart in its family drama between front-man Alan (Dean Kilbey) and his daughter Daisy (Barbara Smith). The practical effects are properly gruesome.” Horror Fuel
” …a lowbrow British horror comedy with gross-out gags (plenty of ripped-off dicks, a character who repeatedly complains that she’s shat herself), geezer-type characters, a third-hand premise (male strippers vs resurrected witch hag), a few actual funny moments, some talented cameo performers coasting […] it’s too throwaway to be much of an ordeal – but a bit more ambition would be appreciated.” The Kim Newman Web Site
“Members Club may not lean into its inherent wackiness nearly as much as it should and a couple of plot threads don’t develop much beyond bullet points but it’s a surprisingly fun ride for anyone who doesn’t expect Noel Coward levels of wit (if you do expect that, did you read the synopsis?) and doesn’t mind the sight of detached dicks.” ★★ Love Horror
“At the core of everything it is a survival horror through and through. The guys commit to the performance, while the women bring the brains to the role. We get fun comedy, good blood splatter and an entertaining time.” ★★★ Movie Reviews 101
“With an expansive cast list, it is unfortunate that characterization is largely thin on the ground and by the numbers at best. It becomes difficult to care for the character’s fates when there is one thing to define them, and it usually involves their sexual exploits. There are admittedly humorous elements within the film […] although this can feel sporadic when some gags are a slog to sit through.” ★★½ The Reviewing Rodders
YouTube reviews:
Trailer:
Release:
Members Club will be released on Digital Download by Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment in the UK on October 21, 2024.
