Cage’s ten seconds as Fu Manchu in Zombie’s fake “Grindhouse” trailer offer a tantalizing glimpse at the exploitation epic that never was.
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It’s Cameo Cage this week, and we’re talking about the films Cage makes the briefest of appearances in. After kicking things off with his directorial debut, Sonny, we moved on to his film debut in 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High and are closing things out with his ten-second blip of bravado in Rob Zombie’s fake trailer for Grindhouse, Werewolf Women of the S.S.
IN THIS CORNER: KELLY MINTZER
The Lowdown
I am going to tread lightly here because I know that Grindhouse and all its associated component parts have pretty ardent fans. And I want to be very clear about this; I’m not even remotely suggesting that anyone is wrong to like it. This is strictly my gut reaction to Werewolf Women of the S.S.—a short that is so quintessentially Rob Zombie you can practically hear it digging through the ditches and burning through the witches as it slams in the back of its Dragula.
I want to be really fair in my assessment of this and state, out of the gate, that I stone-cold hate exploitation movies. I know a lot of cool people who love the genre, and more power to them.
It makes me queasy; I feel like there’s a fetishization of violence towards women that makes me incredibly uncomfortable, which is part and parcel of the genre. So, of course, this trailer is not well-suited to my taste, particularly as it leans immediately into tits and whips.
I additionally—and I want to stress that this is a Kelly thing, not something I am positing as an absolute truth at all—feel a level of discomfort with using one of the most brutal genocides in history as the setting for what is functionally one extended punchline.
I wouldn’t necessarily mind using Nazis or using World War II, but seeing the Arbeit Macht Frei sign alongside the very intentional imagery of the ashes from the ovens falling like snow felt tasteless to me. I’m not suggesting everything NEEDS to be in good taste! To be totally frank, this review, as it is, is less of a review and more of a series of gut reactions.
It’s very hard to assess a trailer any other way, since there is no comprehensive whole to judge.
I know a lot of people would love to see this turned into a feature; I wouldn’t. I don’t have that kind of confidence in Rob Zombie’s abilities to make the sharp and trenchant satire that I would feel (for me) is necessary to justify this kind of setting and potentially incendiary material.
Here’s what I liked:
I loved the sort of cheesy but super fun design of the werewolves. They looked great, like monsters I would enjoy following if they weren’t in this particular setting. I legitimately love that Rob Zombie is such a wife-guy, even though I have pretty mixed feelings about Sheri Moon Zombie’s actual abilities. And finally, and arguably most importantly for this column, I did enjoy Nicolas Cage, even though I felt like his presence further cemented the whole thing as a set-up to a punchline.
At least it seems like for the, I don’t know, hour and 4 minutes he was on set, he deeply enjoyed the flour sack of cocaine he snorted and was having fun.
The Cage Factor:
I don’t know? I honestly am having trouble figuring out how to rate this. Cautious Cage, I guess… this is going to be so very some folks’ cup of tea, but in the oeuvre of Nicolas Cage, he is such a small part that even if you do love it, it’s hard to consider this essential as a part of his filmography.
AND IN THIS CORNER: STEPHANIE MALONE
The Lowdown
Let’s get one thing out of the way up top: Nicolas Cage is in Grindhouse for approximately the length of a sneeze. And yet, as with most things in Cage’s career, it’s not about how long he’s on screen—it’s what he does with those seconds that makes them unforgettable.
Cage appears in Werewolf Women of the S.S., a faux trailer sandwiched between the gloriously blood-soaked double feature of Planet Terror (Robert Rodriguez) and Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino). Directed by Rob Zombie, this throwback to sleaze cinema’s darkest corners is everything exploitation cinema was meant to be: tasteless, wild, and exhilarating in the worst/best possible way.
And Cage? He shows up as Fu Manchu, eyes wild with mystical menace, offering a sinister smirk that somehow channels the ghosts of both Boris Karloff and every Saturday morning kung-fu villain we watched on grainy VHS tapes.
It’s ten seconds of glorious, pulpy absurdity—and it’s absolutely Cage at his most unhinged. In other words: it’s art.
We are really only here to talk about a few minutes of a three-hour+ double feature that includes commercials and fake trailers from a handful of indie icons, but I can’t pass up this opportunity to opine on the glory of Grindhouse as a whole. Read on if you’re curious, or skip to the feature presentation below.
It’s a genuine tragedy that Werewolf Women hasn’t yet been made into a full feature, especially given Cage’s absolutely bananas turn as the villainous Fu Manchu. You can practically hear the Cage-heads (like me) screaming, “TAKE MY MONEY.”
The Cage Factor:
Cage never phones it in, even when the gig is quite literally a joke. He’s Fu Manchu with the full gravitas of Shakespearean tragedy and a grindhouse lunatic rolled into one. Rob Zombie cast Cage for this micro-role not despite his maximalist tendencies, but because of them. The man understands what Cage brings to a film—even a fake one.
Grindhouse isn’t a Cage film, but it’s a feast for genre fans and a key curiosity in the Cage cinematic multiverse. It marks an era where he was shifting to more daring and offbeat roles. This moment—this mere flash of Fu Manchu—feels like the start of a Cage renaissance that would give us Mandy, Mom and Dad, Color Out of Space, and Prisoners of the Ghostland.
The trailer alone is worth a revisit, especially knowing how much potential was packed into those few minutes. It’s a glimpse into a parallel world where Cage led a Nazi-werewolf horror film directed by Rob Zombie.
And frankly, it’s a crime against cinema that we don’t live in that world.
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