Dressed to Kill (1980)

[Todd Tomorrow]

Originally Posted by ravenus

DtK can be defined by a seminal 60's film -

[Show spoiler]Psycho

- but saying its name would be a spoiler to anyone that wants to approach it blind.

I think Dressed to Kill is a lot more fun if you‘ve seen Psycho. The De Palma film has been discussed so much in the way it relates to the Hitchcock film here and everywhere that I’m not going to be coy about it. Dressed to Kill is in dialogue with Psycho and one of the main pleasures of Dressed to Kill lies in how it reconfigures the earlier film.

[Matt89]

This was being discussed in another thread. Dressed to Kill is not at all a slasher. There’s a single murder. That’s it. That doesn’t make it a slasher. The movie is far more focused on the investigative aspect and trying to find out who the killer is, not on elaborate murder sequences. It’s more of an erotic thriller/mystery.

I feel like this kind of argument happens all the time. There’s a death scene in a thriller/mystery film and suddenly that’s enough to warrant it being labeled a slasher. Dressed to Kill isn’t a slasher, I wouldn’t even call it a horror movie. It has elements of a horror film, much like Blow Out, but it’s certainly not a slasher movie. It’s not set up like one, it doesn’t play out like one, it doesn’t follow the conventions of slasher movies. It’s just...not a slasher.

~Matt

[Jope]

Originally Posted by Matt89

This was being discussed in another thread.

that was most likely me; i asked the same question in the '80s slasher thread. i really am curious to see what people think. reaction has been pretty 50/50, which i find interesting. both sides make some really solid cases.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Jope

that was most likely me; i asked the same question in the '80s slasher thread. i really am curious to see what people think. reaction has been pretty 50/50, which i find interesting. both sides make some really solid cases.

I wouldn't call it a slasher. It's one of those things where fans of slasher movies would probably not call it a slasher, but people who aren't into slashers would call it that. It definitely has some slasher elements but from soup to nuts it's primarily a psychological thriller.

[CineSicko]

DRESSED TO KILL is what I call a "Prestige Slasher". It has a low body count (to put it mildly), but the amount of bloodletting is extreme, especially for 1980. It also has veteran actors (Caine, Dickinson) who you wouldn't expect to see in a film with gory murders. Prestige Slashers were made to cash in on the then-popular Teen Slasher movement, but were also targeting the older filmgoers who were looking for something "Hitchcockian". Others include: THE FAN (1981) with Lauren Bacall and James Garner, VISITING HOURS (1982) with Lee Grant and William Shatner, and NIGHTKILL (1980) with Jaclyn Smith and Robert Mitchum. All contain gruesome murders, grisly violence and more blood than you typically find in a "thriller" or "murder mystery". DRESSED TO KILL is probably the bloodiest of the lot.

[Member-167298]

To me, Dressed to Kill is like an American giallo mixed with Psycho.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by CineSicko

DRESSED TO KILL is what I call a "Prestige Slasher". It has a low body count (to put it mildly), but the amount of bloodletting is extreme, especially for 1980. It also has veteran actors (Caine, Dickinson) who you wouldn't expect to see in a film with gory murders. Prestige Slashers were made to cash in on the then-popular Teen Slasher movement, but were also targeting the older filmgoers who were looking for something "Hitchcockian". Others include: THE FAN (1981) with Lauren Bacall and James Garner, VISITING HOURS (1982) with Lee Grant and William Shatner, and NIGHTKILL (1980) with Jaclyn Smith and Robert Mitchum. All contain gruesome murders, grisly violence and more blood than you typically find in a "thriller" or "murder mystery". DRESSED TO KILL is probably the bloodiest of the lot.

That’s a good term for it.

[flyry]

My local BB has it for $6,99 but I'm still considering getting the Criterion instead. (AMZ does not have it in stock at the moment, may wait for Nov BN sale)

[Monterey Jack]

If you're a big fan of the movie, both the Criterion and Arrow releases are musts (I own both).

[Ray Jackson]

I bought the Criterion and watched it last night.

I don’t think i’ve ever seen this picture included in lists of the scariest films ever made, but there are very few films I can think of that fill me with the sense of dread that this one does.

...I was not comfortable being home alone last night.

[StingingVelvet]

I love the moment where she sees the guy from the museum's test results. I get that some have a problem with that kind of "moral lesson" stuff, but that moment crushes her fantasy romantic moment so hard and the whole movie shifts in tone. It's so good.

[omenboy]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I love the moment where she sees the guy from the museum's test results. I get that some have a problem with that kind of "moral lesson" stuff, but that moment crushes her fantasy romantic moment so hard and the whole movie shifts in tone. It's so good.

If seeing that wasn't so jarring for her,

[Show spoiler]she wouldn't have forgotten her ring and everything that happened after wouldn't have occurred, as she was in the elevator and in the clear. Bobbie was just watching from the stairwell and she would have been safely out of the building along with the mother and child in the elevator.

[MJD64]

Angie Dickinson finding those test results after a little "afternoon delight" is a terrific example of De Palma's wicked sense of humor...I'm pretty satisfied with my Fox blu of this title, though I'm always tempted to pick up the Criterion.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by MJD64

I'm pretty satisfied with my Fox blu of this title, though I'm always tempted to pick up the Criterion.

I own the Criterion and Arrow releases just to have all of the available extras.

[BobSimms]

And now there’s a Japanese Region A disc coming from Happinet, an Amazon exclusive. The cover image looks like it’s maybe the (mostly) unadulterated original photo that was later significantly altered to artful effect for the theatrical poster and the eventual Warner Home Video VHS, Image LD, and Criterion BD/DVD.

I can’t think of any other reason to spring for this new release, however, considering the Arrow and Criterion blus pretty much cover all bases.

For reference:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Dress...lu-ray/216762/

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

To me, Dressed to Kill is like an American Gigolo mixed with Psycho.

Correction.

[EricHG]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Body Double is a lot of fun simply because it's so over-the-top at times. And I truly believe all of the laughs and craziness are intentional. De Palma is just too competent a filmmaker and too smart a guy for it to be one of those shoddy "so bad it's good movies" and that same streak of dark humour is present throughout so many of his other films, particularly Raising Cain. Even the fact that he cast Tippi Hedren's daughter as a porn star in a Hitchcock inspired film is hilarious.

And let's not forget that the original plan for Body Double was to make it genuinely pornographic and X-Rated (this then became a plan to simply have a porn star as the female lead, etc, etc). The awesome book, Double DePalma, whose author got to follow DePalma every step of the way, details this--there were even press releases that it would be the first mainstream film to have actual pornography.

[slimdude]

Originally Posted by EricHG

And let's not forget that the original plan for Body Double was to make it genuinely pornographic and X-Rated (this then became a plan to simply have a porn star as the female lead, etc, etc). The awesome book, Double DePalma, whose author got to follow DePalma every step of the way, details this--there were even press releases that it would be the first mainstream film to have actual pornography.

I'm glad that Body Double wasn't made to be hardcore pornographic because it wouldn't have worked at all. The movie was perfect as an R-Rated, erotic thriller just the way it was. Nothing more or nothing less.

[Anthony Thorne]

I love DRESSED TO KILL. It’s a great horror/erotic/giallo/slasher/Hitchcockian Arthouse-exploitation murder mystery puzzle box of a movie. And it’s thrilling. And also very funny, and probably several other things as well. I like it a lot.

It does have one high-impact murder scene where a woman is slashed to death, and the killer then threatens and attempts to slash another woman to death, and at another point we see some highly provocative imagery where - surprise - a killer appears and slashes a woman to death. That’s a lot of slashing, probably more than in some slashers where the killer does more stabbing or hacking or chainsawing than slashing, so if someone wants to refer to DRESSED TO KILL as a slasher, that’s alright by me.

Nancy Allen is sexy in it, Dennis Franz is funny in it, Michael Caine is creepy in it. Great movie.

[MJD64]

Originally Posted by Anthony Thorne

Nancy Allen is sexy in it, Dennis Franz is funny in it, Michael Caine is creepy in it. Great movie.

That verbal sparring between Franz and Allen in their first encounter in the police station is wonderfully, profanely funny, and the whole cast is just terrific - I love Angie Dickinson and Keith Gordon in this as well.

De Palma rendering his cinematic virtuosity on such tawdry material and horror/thriller tropes is what makes DRESSED TO KILL visually brilliant and yet so knowingly funny...and it's all so intoxicatingly stylish and dreamlike it's irresistible.