Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

Zombie films are so pervasive in the world of horror it is perplexing why so many filmmakers continue to return to the theme. There is an obvious market for it, otherwise people would stop making these movies, but there are so many of them it is nearly impossible to create new films in the genre that are creative enough to keep bringing people back.

Thus, we get "creative" horror/comedy films like Zombie Strippers, a film that attempts to blend comedy, political satire and horror with sex. All we end up with here, however, is cheesy, low budget, gratuitous sex and violence with a plot stolen from practically every horror movie you can imagine and even French philosopher and playwright Inesco's Rhinoceros.

It's "the near future" and George W. has stolen his fourth term in office through the help of his brother's rigged voting machines in Florida and his daughter Jenna on the supreme court (yeah, yeah, I know). The US is at war with the entire world, even , umm, Alaska (ouch) and is in need of soldiers so the government invents a serum to reanimate dead soldiers. What they succeed in doing, however, is creating an uncontrollable group of zombies in a lab. They have to call in an elite military force to contain the zombies, but the mission fails and one injured soldier, bitten by a zombie, escapes and stumbles into the illegal (public nudity has been outlawed) strip club The Rhino, where he eventually attacks and infects a stripper named Kat (Jenna Jameson).

Of course, somehow, the undead Kat still wants to dance and strip. She becomes even more popular with the club's patrons, so the owner Ian (Robert Englund) decides it will be good for business to keep her around, even if she is feeding on the unsuspecting customers who think they're being taken backstage for a, umm, a little fun. Eventually, the other girls want in on the action and the whole group decides to become zombies, stripping and luring their prey backstage.

Sooner or later, it all has to end, as one might suspect. Things begin to get out of control as the reanimated dead that Ian has been keeping in a cage below the club get loose and wreak havoc. Eventually, the elite military force swoops in to save the day and kills the sexy zombie strippers and their reanimated victims once and for all -- oops, did I spoil the ending? Well, it doesn't matter, because this is the kind of film that is so poorly written that, if you can't figure out how it's all going to end by the time you're 20-minutes in, you probably need to go back and finish the 3rd grade.

I know this movie is trying to be funny, but it's not. It's so bad it's almost campy. You may laugh whilst watching Zombie Strippers, but you won't be laughing with it, you'll be laughing at how awful the movie actually is. This film exists for one reason -- to see naked women and to see gratuitous amounts of gore. I guess that's two reasons -- see, my IQ has already dropped just from sitting through this film once.

The Picture

Taking place almost entirely in the low-lit strip club, Zombie Strippers has good, strong black levels that remain consistent straight through the film, displaying strong shadow details and no crush. The slightly de-saturated palette puts emphasis on certain primary colors, particularly red, and they look good.  Detail is mostly sharp, but sometimes grain level varies from scene to scene and detail varies with it giving a slightly inconsistent picture. Still, this is a strong AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 encoding from Sony, proving once again that even a silly film can look pretty darn good on Blu-ray.

The Sound

Zombie Strippers is another in a large number of Sony Blu-ray releases with a large array of language options. This particular release comes with English and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless mixes. Additionally, there are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes and English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia subtitle tracks.

The English TrueHD track is fairly lively with good use of the surround channels for ambience and also some subtle atmospheric sound effects. The film's hard rock soundtrack sounds particularly full and energetic assisted by good uses of the LFE channel and heavy reverberant effects sent to surrounds, which help to open up the soundfield for a large, expansive sound. The mix also conveys the film's dialogue in a natural and effective manner, keeping it clear and intelligible.

The Extras

There are not many compelling extras offered up on this release. Outside of the Deleted Scenes and the obligatory "making-of" featurette that plays like your typical self-congratulatory lovefest, there's not much to see here. Even Sony's BD-Live feature is just the usual tacked on extra of previews and trailers for other Sony films and Blu-ray Disc releases.

The extras available on this release are:

• Commentary -- This audio commentary features writer/director Jay Lee, Jenna Jameson, Robert Englund and Joey Medina. Although the four converse very casually and it is easy to listen to, there's nothing particularly outstanding about this commentary and it is the usual "we did this" and "so and so had to do that" sort of thing.
• Factoid Track -- This in-movie pop-up trivia track brings up information relevant to the particular scenes on screen pertaining to anything from the film's references to French philosophy or facts pertaining to the production.
• Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by director Jay Lee and Robert Englund (2.35:1/standard definition) -- 20 mostly brief deleted scenes that mostly show a lot more carnage.
• The Champagne Room: Behind the Scenes of Zombie Strippers (4:3/standard definition) -- Interviews with the cast and filmmakers populated this "pat on the back" making-of featurette.
• The Dressing Room: How to Glam a Zombie (4:3/standard definition) -- The special effects makeup team discusses designing the look of the zombie strippers.
• Previews (high definition):
  • Blu-ray Disc is High Definition!
  • Resident Evil: Degeneration
  • The Fall
  • Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
  • Lakeview Terrace
  • Hancock
  • Casino Royale
  • Felon
  • 88 Minutes
  • Pineapple Express
  • You Don't Mess with the Zohan
  • The House Bunny

Final Thoughts

It doesn't work as camp, it doesn't work as satire, and it doesn't work as horror. Why was this film even made? If you absolutely need to see Jenna Jameson as a zombie, then rent Zombie Strippers, otherwise, stay away.

Where to Buy

• Zombie Strippers on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Jenna Jameson, Robert Englund, Roxy Saint, Joey Medina, Shamron Moore
• Directors: Jay Lee
• Audio/Languages: English and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, French,  Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Not Rated
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: October 28, 2008
• Run Time: 94 minutes