Because there is nothing people like more than violent, cuhrazy womenfolk, one of the most popular new shows in Latin America is “Mujeres Asesinas,” which centers around women extracting vengeance on men (and women!) who have done ‘em wrong. And get sexy-cool nicknames in the process:

Loosely adapted from real-life crime stories, “Mujeres Asesinas” follows a fairly simple formula. In Mexico, viewers saw two episodes each week in which women are grievously wronged, usually by a man (father, husband, lover, “john”). Most of the female characters formerly were mild-mannered, long-suffering types. But they are transformed by the abuses they endure into hellions with telltale nicknames such as Patricia “Avenger,” Martha “Suffocator” and Margarita “Poisonous.”

Each of the two separate hour-long segments (minus time out for commercials hawking cellphones and collagen enhancements) builds to a gruesome climax, in which the crime is reenacted. For the Mexican version, the producers decided to add a new dramatic element by showing the crimes being scrutinized by the “Department of Investigation Specializing in Cases of Women,” presumably to assure anxious viewers that justice will be served. Every episode also concludes with a moral coda stating what just deserts were reaped by their homicidal protagonists.

Sounds like jolly good fun! Of course, the show’s popularity has brought up questions as to whether it will inspire copy-cat crimes, an idea that the show’s creator and its stars shrug off:

“I think one of the values of the series is that it speaks not only of the depth of the female psychology, but rather it speaks … [of] the human condition, no?” said Cecilia Suárez, the actress who plays Ana “Corrosiva,” an acid-wielding anti-heroine who delivers a brutal payback to her control-freak plastic surgeon lover.

True. This doesn’t make us want to extract bloody revenge so much as it makes us want to pour ourselves into a black catsuit and pose in front of a mirror while purring, “Revenge.” But that’s just as. Interested piqued? Take a look at a clip from the show which, it seems, borrows a bit of its premise from one of our very favorite movies ever. Guess which:

The get-even ways of ‘Mujeres Asesinas’ [LA Times]