Friday, January 23, 2009

Zombie Strippers Review

Zombie Strippers Poster

In a world gone mad, a former pornstar stars in this take on the zombie category. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I present for your reading and viewing pleasure, a review of the horror film entitled, "Zombie Strippers".

The plot is simple. A zombie virus has spread and has now landed on a unsuspecting strip club in the middle of anywhere, USA. While the U.S military fights off the infection and goes on missions to stop the onslaught, clearing anyone in their way, the strip club starts to showcase some bad changes as one victim is infected with a taste of flesh.

Here is a trailer for Zombie Strippers:



First and foremost, Jenna Jameson looks haggard. She does not look good at all, and it is sad to see her in this fashion. If you're not familiar with Jenna Jameson's body of work, you probably aren't going to care. However, Jenna was a major player in the upswing of contemporary pornography, and is one of the few pornographic stars to have succesfully crossed over from adult media to mainstream media. However, unlike Traci Lords, Jameson has found a way to market herself on equel levels with pornography and mainstream media attention. I won't go into a history of Jenna Jameson, but if you're interested in her background (non explicit, within reason) you can read her autobiography "How To Make Love Like A Pornstar" which is quite the interesting character study. Jameson's star power has her starring in this film, and like I said, she looks terrible.

The film begins with some good gore, but not great gore. The gore effects early on are all done with CG. The CG also mires the gun fire and bullet wounds in the film. They do not look real at all, and really move you away from the film. The budget is obviously low, but you could use blanks a lot better than this poor excuse for CG. I kid you not, the CG is terrible and I don't know why they didn't use some more realism.

The film quality is that of a higher end pornographic film. Meaning it is NOT "movie" quality at all. The editing is where this movie is somewhat better as a platform to move the story along. The film has a lot of dark points, and rightfully so, it takes place in a location with low lighting and extreme colors.

The first half of the film is going to make or break this for you. If you haven't seen it, just be aware that there are extended strip tease scenes and you are going to see a lot of flesh. Given Jameson's background, it is no wonder that the early portions alongside the second half of the film has her stripping and showing off her skeletal body for the camera. I didn't find this offensive, but I know some people will assume this is more than just a horror movie, and will not proceed to watch the rest of the film unfold.

Robert Englund is in this film. He's ok at best.

The film turns the zombie story around a little. As the zombies become more self aware they can still perform tasks, if they are women. Women zombies maintain their senses and are fully aware that they have extra strength and are able to do superhuman things. They also aim for the male anatomy in the way they attack.

The film goes into a full throttle horror comedy as there is a sequence where Jenna Jameson's character shoots projectiles out of her private regions. There are just too many comedic moments in this film to mention, and overall, they aren't that funny. They are attempts at hilarity, but it falls flat.

zombie strippers

Is Zombie Strippers scary?: No. This film is not scary to me. However, as a horror comedy it does shine light on a couple of themes that are worth exploring. These themes may or may not be the intentions of the director or writer. You may disagree with me in my thoughts of the themes produced by the film, but this is what I thought when I was watching the movie. So consider these things while watching the film.

The theme that struck me the most was the general enthusiasm that the male customers of this strip club had. Initially they were docile and didn't really have that much applause for the women that were taking their clothes off. They had moderate attention spans and didn't really go over board. However, they went completely insane when the zombie women started to strip and show off their clothes. Maybe this is a metaphor for the current state of pornography and sex when consideration of men. It seems that the bar has been elevated to such states, that simple pornographic images don't suffice. Men these days enjoy a much harder, more hardcore and sickening form of adult media. This film unintentionally shows that with the way the male audience reacts to the changes of the strippers. As the strippers become more and more degenerate and decay further, the men become more and more enthused with the outcome.

I recently read a book entitled, Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity by Robert Jensen, and it had the same argument that this film illustrates. Maybe that is why I was thinking about this theme, rather than enjoying the horror comedy.

I recommend watching Zombie Strippers in contrast to what is coming out of Japan in terms of gore and comedy. As you may have noted from my review of Tokyo Gore Police, the envelope is being pushed by other countries, and it seems that our own country seems to be lagging behind in terms of horror and gore. Sure we have a good amount of gore at times, but the levels of gore that reach into comedic stages seems to be missing and while we are trying to make pg-13 films, these rated R and unrated horror comedies are the only ones trying to push the envelope in what is considered horror. Yes, watch Zombie Strippers, but don't expect a whole lot out of it. I always consider more than meets the eye in consideration to horror films, so I enjoyed it on a social commentary level, even if it wasn't the intentions of the film makers.



Evil Breed

Oh and just in case you think this is the first time Jenna Jameson tried to get into a horror film, you might remember the film Evil Breed: The Legend of Samhain, which had a cool latex monster and a much better looking Jenna Jameson.

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5 comments:

  1. Finally, a good movie review blog. You don't know how long I've waited, how much sludge I waded through to get here.

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  2. The movie doesn't need to be scary, the idea that this movie was even MADE is scary enough as it is!

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  3. I hated this movie! [Robert Englund was the only worthwhile things about it]

    Nice Review Jorge!

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  4. jervaise brooke hamsterDecember 9, 2010 at 9:26 AM

    I just wanted to see endless close-ups of the girls gaping arse-holes and twats.

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  5. there are no major close ups jervaise, sorry

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