Film

Skate Witches

Name: Skate Witches
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1986
Cast: Karen Kibler, Dana Mendelssohn, Jenny Parker

Comedy
Light-hearted

A two-minute Super 8 punk rock comedy shot in one afternoon on sixty dollars. Three teenage female skateboarders and their pet rats terrorize boy skaters in a blast of anarchic, deliberately cheap fun. It's pure DIY spirit: funny, chaotic, utterly unpolished, and over before you can catch your breath. For anyone who loves underground art that refuses to take itself seriously.

If you liked this

Repo Man1984

Alex Cox's anarchic punk road movie about a young repo man falling into LA's underground. Surreal, politically sharp, visually inventive, and bursting with the same fearless anti-establishment energy that powers Skate Witches.

But The plot is deliberately loose and the tone shifts abruptly. Some find it frustratingly unfocused rather than freeing.

Liquid Sky1982

A New York underground sci-fi film shot for almost nothing, starring an androgynous punk performer. Like Skate Witches, it's visually crude but conceptually fearless and genuinely strange.

But The pacing is glacial, the synth score is relentless, and the plot barely moves. It's deliberately difficult.

Sid and Nancy1986

Alex Cox's punk rock tragedy about the Sex Pistols' doomed couple. Raw, furious, genuinely tragic, and shot with the same aesthetic commitment to grittiness that defines Skate Witches.

But It's bleak and ultimately devastating. The violence and degradation aren't glamorous—they're meant to horrify you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Skate Witches

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Puffball2007

Both are 1986 underground films shot cheap with more attitude than resources, wielding whatever tools were available to make something genuinely weird.

Shot in the same year as Skate Witches, this is a low-budget horror film with deadpan absurdist humor and complete contempt for genre conventions. Same era, same punk refusal to follow the rules, different genre mask.

But It's slow and deliberately silly in ways that don't always land. You're supposed to laugh at it, but the joke can feel thin.

Suburbia1984

Penelope Spheeris's documentary about LA's hardcore punk scene captures the same DIY ethos and teenage rebellion. Real subculture, real stakes, and genuine affection for its subjects.

But It's unstructured and sometimes feels chaotic. The depiction of street life is grim and unglamorous.

The Warriors1979

Gang-culture action film with stylized, almost comic-book violence and rogue teenage antiheroes. Shares Skate Witches' playful attitude toward youthful menace and cheap-looking-but-effective filmmaking.

But The gender politics are dated. By modern standards, it can feel like a product of its era in ways that grate.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!1965

Russ Meyer's cult classic about violent, sexually confident women who wreak havoc. Trashy, gleeful, and anarchic in a way that matches Skate Witches' refusal to apologize for chaos.

But It's aggressively sexualized and the action scenes are genuinely brutal. The satire can feel thin.

Xtro1982

A British sci-fi horror film made outside the studio system with inspired practical effects and delirious logic. Amateur but imaginative, exactly the ethos of a sixty-dollar Super 8 experiment.

But The plot makes little sense. It prioritizes mood and weirdness over coherence or character.

Death Wish II1982

A scrappy, violent action film that doesn't pretend to be more than it is. Direct, unpretentious, and shameless about its B-movie thrills—the spirit of low-budget punk cinema.

But It's a revenge fantasy that conflates brutality with justice. The sexual violence is exploitative and unpleasant.

Eolomea1972

An experimental Bulgarian film shot for pennies, visually bizarre and completely indifferent to commercial appeal. Proves that resourcefulness and ambition matter more than budget.

But There's almost no plot. It's deliberately opaque and patience-testing in a way that feels like punishment.

Show Me Love1998

Both center female teenage friendships as the real story, treating girls not as victims or love interests but as chaotic forces of nature.

A Swedish coming-of-age comedy about two teenage girls in a small town. It has Skate Witches' affection for young female friendship, anarchic humor, and willingness to let girls be messy, angry, and fully alive.

But The sexual content is explicit. Some may find the tone shifts between comedy and darkness jarring and uncomfortable.

Shock Treatment1981

Both prove that incompetence can become a style when paired with total commitment to vision. The cheapness isn't a limitation—it's the whole point.

An absurdist horror-comedy from New Zealand that treats low-budget constraint as an aesthetic choice. Gleefully terrible in its effects, deeply funny, uninterested in polish—the spiritual descendant of guerrilla filmmaking.

But It's deliberately bad-looking and the humor is very specific to horror fandom. If you don't find poorly-made gore funny, it will just seem tedious.