Despite a title that meant I had to watch it, my expectations for Zombie Strippers were pretty low. There's a long tradition of schlocky horror films relying on nothing more than an exploitative title to put bums on (usually home furnished) seats, and this one is perhaps more genius than most.
As predicted, it wasn't exactly brilliant, but better than perhaps you'd think it deserved to be, given its cheap and cheerful production values and its crass attempt to cash-in on people's love for trashy cult films of yore. Firstly, the fact it doesn't take itself at all seriously, goes in its favour. Secondly, that it is so stupid that you don't take it at all seriously, also helps. Nudity and gore are both in abundance, so you don't feel cheated on that front. In addition, spending a large chunk of the budget on Jenna Jameson and Robert Englund was a shrewd move, both of whose fans would probably watch it no matter how terrible it was.
Lazy, clumsy, and occasionally spot-on political points are dotted throughout the picture. My personal favourite is a retort given by the latest girl to join the strippers at Club Rhino. Driven to stripping to raise funds for her grandmother's colostomy, and hassled by her pious Christian boyfriend, she succinctly illuminates some of society's class and gender problems when explaining her decision: "Maybe there's, more truth to the human condition, than taking my clothes off for emotionally stunted men, so my grandmother can shit in a bag, than me staying virginal and pure for you".
Sadly it is now de Rigueur(mortis) to have shamefully crap CGI effects in every low budget horror film, and I wish these guys had opted for old fashioned SFX, because even if equally shoddy, some old-school charm would have suited the knock-off retro-cult feel better, and would have in all likeliness elevated the film a little higher.
Is it trying to highlight people's attraction to freakish curiosities over the genuinely erotic? Has it got something clever to say about neo-liberalism in America? No, probably not. Has it got stripping zombies? Yes it has!
As predicted, it wasn't exactly brilliant, but better than perhaps you'd think it deserved to be, given its cheap and cheerful production values and its crass attempt to cash-in on people's love for trashy cult films of yore. Firstly, the fact it doesn't take itself at all seriously, goes in its favour. Secondly, that it is so stupid that you don't take it at all seriously, also helps. Nudity and gore are both in abundance, so you don't feel cheated on that front. In addition, spending a large chunk of the budget on Jenna Jameson and Robert Englund was a shrewd move, both of whose fans would probably watch it no matter how terrible it was.
Lazy, clumsy, and occasionally spot-on political points are dotted throughout the picture. My personal favourite is a retort given by the latest girl to join the strippers at Club Rhino. Driven to stripping to raise funds for her grandmother's colostomy, and hassled by her pious Christian boyfriend, she succinctly illuminates some of society's class and gender problems when explaining her decision: "Maybe there's, more truth to the human condition, than taking my clothes off for emotionally stunted men, so my grandmother can shit in a bag, than me staying virginal and pure for you".
Sadly it is now de Rigueur(mortis) to have shamefully crap CGI effects in every low budget horror film, and I wish these guys had opted for old fashioned SFX, because even if equally shoddy, some old-school charm would have suited the knock-off retro-cult feel better, and would have in all likeliness elevated the film a little higher.
Is it trying to highlight people's attraction to freakish curiosities over the genuinely erotic? Has it got something clever to say about neo-liberalism in America? No, probably not. Has it got stripping zombies? Yes it has!
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