Night 9: ‘Dressed to Kill’ (1980)

If most of the general fears of the 80’s could come alive in a single film, this would probably be it!

In a time when the AIDS scare was haunting the public’s imagination, ‘Dressed to Kill’ embodies the paranoia of the time perfectly, with queerness, fluctuating sexuality and venereal diseases troubling our main characters.

The story begins with an unhappily married woman (Angie Dickinson) who has recurring fantasies of looking for sexual adventures elsewhere. When she does finally find it, she gets the scare of her life: her lover might have a venereal disease.

Still, she has no time to worry about it, since she is killed by a mysterious woman when she is in the elevator. A young girl (Nancy Allen) witnesses the entire thing, and teams up with the lady’s son (Keith Gordon) to find the culprit, no matter what it costs. What they don’t know, is that they’re in for a very strange surprise.

Thus, the story can be split into two parts: the first part involves Kate’s sexual adventures, while the second part involves Liz, who sees Kate’s death.

Between these two, the first part works best, since the most terrifying parts are the more subtle: the imaginary rape scene, the long cat-and-mouse game at the gallery, the woman’s reaction to the possibility of contracting a venereal disease, etc. There’s more meaning there than in the second part, where the movie turns into a more typical and less interesting slasher.

Although the twist is effective and you have to pay an inordinate amount of attention to see it coming before it happens, the movie has little to give in terms of depth or horror. In fact, it feels more like a collection of settings and scenes from a porno film than an actual movie, and it’s framed as such.

It doesn’t help that the characters are also deeply unlikeable. The only one that elicits some sympathy is Peter, Kate’s son. Yet, he, too, lacks any charm that pushes us to root for him wholeheartedly.

The ending is also too unsatisfactory, and it tries to mend the lack of real horror with a last big scare that simply doesn’t work in the same way as in ‘Carrie’, also made by director Brian De Palma.

‘Dressed to Kill’ gives a fun twist to the ‘Psycho’ formula, but although it tries to be provocative, it ultimately becomes a dull watch.

Grade: 6/10. Little to see when it’s stripped down.

Scare Factor: none.

Gore/violence: a little.

Nudity/sexual situations: a lot!

Next: ‘Phantasm’ (1979)