Stripped to Kill (1987, dir. Katt Shea)

Actor turned director Katt Shea’s debut stylish 80’s Stripper Thriller, produced by the legendary Roger Corman.

Stripped to Kill is no doubt a B-list movie of the late 80’s, but it is shockingly enjoyable. The movie’s title (and certain plot points) bare blatant similarity to Brian De Palma’s American Giallo film Dressed to Kill (1980), but make no mistake, Shea cites De Palma as one of her most pivotal influences and it shows. The films plot seems simple enough. At a dive Los Angeles strip club, cleverly named ‘Rock Bottom,’ one of the dancers is murdered horribly by an unknown assailant. Two undercover cops, Female cop Sheenan and Male Cop Heineman, witness the crime and are unable to save the woman. Heineman convinces Sheenan to go undercover as a Dancer to try and solve the crime, which she hesitantly agrees to and eventually takes a liking to dancing on stage. The rest is a typical whodunnit, with a twist ending and a few very 80s and very unfortunate misogynistic lines in between. Why? Because 1987.

Stripped to Kill has a runtime of almost exactly 90 minutes, and to it’s benefit, does not spend much of that time on the sub par relationship between Sheenan and her shitty male partner with the Keifer Lost Boys haircut or the very 80’s demeaning dialogue. What it does do, is give every female dancer at least one of their own dance sequences chocked full of props, themes, and so much neon lighting. This is the absolute highlight of the film and really shows the care Shea sought to put into showing these women as artists, instead of the stereotypical idea of what many assumed Strippers were in 1987. Shea apparently got the idea for the film after visiting a strip club for the first time. Her experience made her realize that the women dancing were in fact artists, many of whom took huge amounts of pride in their craft. There are many scenes of topless women, but there are almost no gratuitous sex scenes nor any disrespectful men in the audience (SHOCKER). While I was watching, I was not yet aware the director was a woman, but knew there was no way this was directed by a man. The tact with which Shea depicts the dancers of Rock Bottom gets this film two major thumbs up from me.

**Spoilers Ahead** but honestly you’re not gonna watch this movie for the plot, let’s be real.

Lastly, I would like to point out that for a film made in 1987, Shea has included not only a Lesbian relationship, but also, a male Asian Drag Queen to play the role of twins Eric and Roxanne. Roxanne even has her own dance number, with an AMAZING set of prosthetic tits. For 1987 this is pretty revolutionary and even more indicative that it was directed and written by a woman. HOWEVER, the film does fall into the same heterosexist/transphobic ending as De Palma’s Dressed to Kill, as well as, the dead Lesbian trope, which are both a big fat awful NO, but unfortunately not very surprising for the time period.

All in all, Stripped to Kill is a fun, super stylie, neon soaked, 80s erotic dancing gem, with low-budget dialogue, and TERRIBLE made for the movie 80s music (which includes a track hilariously titled “Dream Come True,” a blatant rip off of “Sweetest Taboo” by Sade to avoid copyright costs), but ultimately holds up as a very cool and positive depiction of Strippers in the 80s through the lens of a first time female director. I highly recommend this one as the background video at your next late-night party where you can play better music over the visuals. It’s definitely becoming a staple for mine.

Stripped to Kill is available to watch on Amazon Prime!