Zombie Strippers sounds like a terrific idea for a movie until you think about it for a minute. Zombies — cool! Strippers — awesome! Zombie strippers — oh ye... hey, wait a second... ick.
Still, until your imagination reaches this unpleasant image, the title definitely grabs you. The actual film is the same way. After a promising beginning, the film turns as ugly and slow-moving as a reanimated pole-dancer. That's not to say it isn't fun; it just sags quite a bit as it goes on.
It's the near future, and thanks to a corrupt electoral system, U.S. President George W. Bush is in his fourth consecutive term of office. America is now at war with at least five different nations and is starting to run out of troops. A top secret zombie formula is created as a means to put dead soldiers back in action. A crack team of mercenaries is sent to deal with a minor zombie outbreak in an urban centre, and one of the soldiers gets bitten. The afflicted soldier hides out in an illegal strip club next door. Yes, illegal. Dubya has banned public nudity entirely, forcing ecdysiasts to ply their trade in hidden speakeasy-type establishments. What a prude.
This part of the film is clever, fast-paced and a delight to watch. Then, the movie remembers that it's supposed to be about zombie strippers. Oh, well. Strangely enough, the patrons of the club actually enjoy the undead strippers more than the intact ones, so the manager allows the rotting dancers to continue working, and the girls start getting infected on purpose in order to compete with the zombies' superhuman pole-dancing skills. Between these jealous coworkers and the managers who allow the decaying stripteasers are allowed to come and go as they please, I've never seen so many movie characters do so little to prevent a zombie outbreak in my life — and I'm something of an expert in these matters.
In an oddly literate move for a film about naked zombies, Zombie Strippers makes reference to Eugene Ionesco's surreal 1959 play Rhinoceros — both stories are about regular people transforming themselves into ugly, destructive beasts due to simple peer pressure. While transposing Ionesco's ideas to a zombie strip club makes no sense, the parallels are there. Plus, the bar is called “The Rhino Club” and has a manager named “Ian Essko.”
Ignoring the clever beginning, the questionable premise and the inexplicable homage to the Theatre of the Absurd, what’s left is a nudity-enriched zombie flick. As far as these things go, Zombie Strippers is pretty good. The special effects are impressively messy and the tone is ludicrous enough to keep an audience chuckling, especially if they're actually keen to see a movie called Zombie Strippers. It's a lot like Snakes on a Plane, really; great title, fun to watch with a large group of rowdy friends, and quickly forgotten.
