Zombie Strippers (2008) Starring Jenna Jameson, Robert Englund & Roxy Saint Directed by Jay Lee Written by Jay Lee

“ That's the one. Lieutenant Ryker here killed Satan himself with a sharp stick. Good work soldier!”


Oh God, this movie was so much better than I expected it to be. But then, with a title like Zombie Strippers, you don’t go in expecting much.

The movie is pretty much exactly what you thought it might be, a zombie wanders into a strip club, bites a stripper, the strippers bite each other, and then begin eating the patrons in the VIP room. Enter: Marines.

Despite that fact, writer/director Jay Lee has somehow managed to incorporate a plethora of literary, political, and philosophical jokes into the mix. So, if you aren’t well read and miss them, you can enjoy the boobs and bloodshed. If you are too hoity-toity to enjoy a good zombie story, maybe you’ll still get a chuckle from the socio-political humor. If you can love both the high and the low brow, you might just find yourself falling for this film.

All the action takes place in a club named Rhino’s, run by a little germophobe by the name of Ian Essko (Robert Englund). The film is based, in part, on the play “Rhinoceros” by Eugene Ionesco, where the inhabitants of a small village turn into animals one by one. The stories and their parallels give you some idea of the strange literary depth this movie has. You’ll also find references to Frederick Nietzsche, the poet Sartre, philosopher Descartes, and piles and piles of jabs against the Bush administration. I knew I’d love the movie from the moment it opened, Robert Heinlein style, with a news broadcast from the future, giving status reports on the war in Iraq, Iran, Leganon, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc.

Of course, despite all of the interesting referential humor and zombie bloodshed, the movie is definitely padded, exhibiting the fact that the hour and a half runtime was about 45 minutes longer than the film demanded. What is it padded with though? Pole dancing. Lots of undead pole dancing. It turns out that zombie-ism, at least for females (who keep their persona, as opposed to the moaning, brain hungry males), is a sexually liberating experience, and the girls want to do nothing but dance (and feed). Every girl in the movie gets at least one dance, some get two, and I think Jenna Jameson is on stage almost the entire movie. Of course, can I complain about that? Not really. If you’re looking for great cinema, I’ll tell you to turn elsewhere. If you think pale girls with neck wounds stripping is worth watching for 45 or so minutes, then you’ve just hit the jackpot.

As mentioned, Jenna Jameson is in the movie as the head stripper, and most of her time, she’s on stage. Jenna is trained in classical dance, and of course is a veteran of the adult film industry, so she’s absolutely magnificent on stage, standing up all the other girls by far (though I do have a soft spot (ahem) for the goth girl), spellbinding in every moment she’s on screen. She gets to show off her acting chops a bit too, showing some excellent line delivery, a natural talent for comedic timing. Of course, no one in the movie is funnier than fan fave Robert Englund, taking a second turn as a club owner/DJ in as many years (check out Masters of Horror: Dance of the Dead for another excellent Englund performance). His gun toting, weasely, hypochondriac Ian character darts around the screen with manic energy, dropping the best one-liners in the show, and stealing whatever scene he’s in.

I think many people have been a little too hard on Zombie Strippers (no pun intended, please). Its been panned by critics and viewers left and right…but I think they’re trying to take it too seriously. This is a film that knows damn well how ridiculous its own premise is, and uses that to its advantage. It works very hard to deliver high quality zombie gore and mayhem, humor on a couple of different levels (from jokes about “On the Genealogy of Morals” to shooting ping pong balls out of one’s hoo-ha), and some excellent female nudity…if you’re into that sort of thing. Feminists out there will be happy to know that, despite the bevy of bare bosoms, this movie tries hard to not be totally exploitative of women…only the gals know what the hell is going on at any time in this movie. “As with anything, you put a man in there, and it all goes to shit.”

I mean, there are problems with the film, the audience association new girl character, Jessy, is totally underutilized and superfluous to the film, disappearing for long tracks of time, for example; but the laughs the film delivers more than makes up for it. If you can’t find SOMETHING to like about Zombie Strippers, you’re probably just too stuffy for your own good… or a real die-hard Bush supporter. Just sit back and relax, this movie’s got the 3 B’s of B-movies in plenty, and it’s aiming to give you the VIP treatment.