Director - Jay Lee
Language - English
Genre - Horror, Zombie
How do you improve a Zombie film? Set it in a pole dancing club and cast Jenna Jameson and Robert Englund and that's Zombie Strippers.
As in a number of films, pesky government agents spill a chemical virus which starts to infect the local strip club turning pole dancers in to flesh eating zombies that the clients have to fend off. That's the film I expected and, on one level that is Zombie Strippers but there is another level to this film. As I watched I started to think that something was a bit odd, some of the speeches were a bit strange and didn't fit the expected level of a film about a Zombie infected strip club. There was also something a bit familiar about this film, but I knew I had not seen it before.
As I've said Zombie Strippers starts off like most normal zombie films, there is an infection and people turn in to zombies, in this case mainly the strippers but then the film takes a turn, an infected stripper takes to the stage and puts on a show that the punters love, she makes more money than any of the strippers have made before. This leads to the strippers taking sides, those who want to make money and chose to get themselves infected, not caring that they will probely end up eating a punter who was only expecting a lap dance. The set of strippers chose to remain humans, they see the strippers as the monsters they are.
I have to admit I did not work out why Zombie Strippers was familiar until I watched the extras, I think I was distracted by pole dancing routines, or maybe the final battle where Jenna Jameson fires billiard balls from her nether regions, but when saw the extras it clicked, Zombie Strippers is a retelling of Eugene Ionesco's play 'The Rhinoceros'.
In 'The Rhinoceros' people start turning in to rhinoceros and running rampage through the town. There is no reason for people to change into rhinoceros, they just do and, at the beginning of the play some of the towns folk even refuse to believe the it is happening but, as the play continues and more people turn the discussion turns to whether is the new way of life and if being human old hat. The question of choice is raised when character who hated the Rhinoceros' start turning, are they choosing to follow the newest fashion or have they been brainwashed by the masses. Those who do not change are scared of being left behind and being seen as different.
In Zombie Stripper the rhinoceros have been replaced by the zombies and the need to fit in has been added to with the promise of the extra money the zombies can make but Zombie Strippers still follows the same themes and the struggle to remain an individual, not a zombie.
After saying all that if all you want is a film with zombies and scantily clad women than Zombie Strippers provides, but if you want something a bit more then leave you brain on and appreciate Zombie Strippers on another level. Either way enjoy
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