Zombie Strippers

Sony Pictures

R4 DVD 2008

Zombie Strippers is an astoundingly original and taboo breaking horror film. Combing a strong satirical sense of humour with an abundance of gore, violence and sexuality it creates an over the top viewing experience. At times it seems more like a cross between a Fulci Zombie film, Gordon’s Re-animator and Show Girls with some solid nudity thrown in for good measure.

The film opens with a newsreel outlining the current state of the world. George Bush has been re-elected once again and wars are being raged through the world by the new imperialist US. In an attempt to keep up the demand for soldiers, a viral agent has been developed which re-animates soldiers after death and keep them fighting. There is a drawback, slowly the body and brain decays and what is left is a rotting shell which hungers for fresh. The lab testing the virus is called W and run by Bush and Cheney (hints of Walburton here ?) and the political satire runs deep throughout the film.

Of course, American security as it is, the virus escapes and zombies are roaming the military facility. This is, of course, not the original, it has been done many times before and while the satire is fun, nothing stands out, until what comes next.

When one of the soldiers is bitten, to avoid being shot, he escapes and lands in an illegal and underground strippers establishment run by a nasty money grabbing boss Ian Essko played admirably by Robert Englund (Good on your Freddie!). The strippers are putting on quite a show with the “super stripper” being none other than Jenna Jameson. But she is no normal stripper; she is educated in the work of Fredrich Nietzsche and sees stripping as part of her warfare against human normality (!).

This strange philosophical bent runs throughout the movie, the town itself is called Sartre and the young would be stripper is a Christian having moral quandaries about whether to strip to gain money for her grannies colostomy surgery ! This isn’t forgetting the young goth and the bosses wife who sounds like Elvira but is named Madame Blavatski (a 19^th century Russian occultist !). There is a constant educated dialogue between the strippers (and others) on the meaning of life and the nature of existence. This philosophical tone (and the humour and satire) gives the movie an edge which is unusual in what could characteristically be seen as a zombie sex gore film.

Above all, however, we need to be honest and say that the power of the film is in the sex and gore. The first scene which really blows you out of the water and sets the tone for the rest of the film is when Jenna Jameson is bitten on the neck by the soldier. She then turns into “zombie super stripper” and puts on the strip of her life. Covered in blood with her throat ripped out she takes to the pole and in a outrageous performance which mixes gore, sex and blood, she wows the crowd (and for that matter, the viewer as well).

This combination of nudity, sex, blood, gore and death is certainly one that will confront the censors and I will surprised if it is not “tamed down” for Australian release. As the strippers become infected, each one takes on a new persona and the gore girls take to the stage, each one trying to outstrip the others.

Of course there are also subtle observations, the audience, hooked on sensation, are not longer interested in the “living” strippers and only want zombie flesh ! So the girls fall to the allure of being undead and compete for the attention of the audience. Who, by the way, they are also eating and turning into zombies along the way (with lots of sex = meat jokes along the way).

The two themes which run through these sequences are the way in which the mob, fascinating and repelled at the same time, become addicted to watching the undead strippers. It has a lot of resonance with the way in which society as a whole is addicted to crime TV and disaster, a sort of vicarious obsession with violence and death and when presented with sex as well, the hook is the strongest. This, of course, is quite an intelligent social commentary, carefully scripted into what on the surface could be seen as simply a zombie film.

The other theme which is of interest is the way in which the strippers, exploited and used by Ian Essko, have become so desensitized that they fight among themselves to be the best undead zombie stripper and even give themselves voluntarily to be bitten so they can join the new craze ! This leads to one of the more outrageous sequences when the two main strippers, each jealous of the other’s success, attack each other with everything they have got. This battle starts with ping pong and then billiard balls shot from the obvious orifice and climaxes with them trying to tear each other to pieces!

This is truly glorious entertainment – it has everything – sex, death, blood, gore, social commentary, biting satire, a superb script, amazing special effects, solid acting, strippers and nudity, it is amazing how much you can pack into one film !

The film begins and ends with a strong satirical message as we realize that the government has set the virus loose themselves as they make big bucks off the disaster. It seems the “W” manipulates what occurs to they can make profits from the solutions and these range from the creation of medical problems to war. We get an eloquent speech from the secret government agent who gives us the straight facts and even tells us that not enough youngsters are smoking, just before he is bitten by a zombie head that is left in a bag of body parts. Ahh! The Irony.

This is one awesome film, sex and death have never looked so damn good !