Le strip-tease de la mort

I recently watched Stripped to Kill 2: Live Girls (1989) on Prime. The storyline follows a razor blade-wielding serial killer on the loose and a stripper who sees the murders as they're happening in her dreams. She starts thinking that maybe she's the killer, while her best friend tries to convince her she isn't, and the detective assigned to the case doesn't know what to think.

This film is directed by Katt Shea (Poison Ivy) and stars Maria Ford (Night Hunter), Eb Lottimer (Sicario), Marjean Holden (Mortal Kombat: Annihilation), Jeannine Bisignano (Ruthless People), and Debra Lamb (Blood Covered Chocolate).

This film, with a little higher production value, could have been as good as the first. The storyline had potential, and the horror elements were solid. There was effective use of a razor blade, with great flashes and blood splatter. Unfortunately, the hazy dream sequences were cheesy and didn't work as well as intended. The ladies are once again gorgeous, and there's plenty of nudity. The acting is hit or miss.

In conclusion, Stripped to Kill 2: Live Girls is a mediocre addition to the horror genre, worth watching only for fans of the first film. I would score it a 4/10 and recommend it only with appropriate expectations.

The dance numbers this time around are better pulled off and they are not as excessive, but this sequel is still inferior to the original. This time around another batch of dancers at a strip club are killed off one by one. However, one of the dancers has visions of the killings and fears she may be the killer.

This sequel lacks the gritty look, character development, and dialogue that made the original so good to begin with. The performances are nowhere near as good as the original either, but they certainly are adequate. This time around there is a lot of flash, but not much substance. Pity.

Plagued by strange dreams, a stripper in a seedy club starts a relationship with a detective investigating the series of murders occurring around the other residents of the stripclub she works at when it starts to appear she's acting out her dreams as the culprit forcing them to find the real killer.

This was a decent enough if somewhat problematic follow-up. The main feature that works here is the same factor that works well for the first one in that its sleaze trappings are incredibly fun and well-developed throughout. Featuring no shortage of high-end stripping scenes where neon-soaked dancers are put to the test with tightly choreographed sequences set to exotic jazz and saxophone-laden music creating an impressive visual involving the way the sequences come together. As this manages to incorporate a solid series of backstage interactions with the rest of the dancers who are engaging in the usual series of pettiness and jealousy expected in these kinds of features that involve changing or stripping down that manages to come across some solid nudity in that regard. As well, there's also a strong series of stalking scenes featuring the killer striking others around her. Since we've been given a great setup for this involving the hallucinations that paint her as the killer who's targeting her coworkers in stark black-and-white sequences featuring the striking imagery of the killer coming after them working well alongside the shocking concept of it all, there's a fine start here to the rest of the sequences here. The actual stalking scenes are incredibly rare and not nearly as involved but still manage to get some fun work out of the terrified nature of the victims in such a situation before the actual strike occurs which is usually accomplished by either razor slashes across the face or strangulation leading to a decent enough finale where everything comes together. These all give this a decent amount of positives although there are some pretty big issues with this one holding it back. Among the main flaws here is the excessively underwhelming and lazy storyline that tries too hard to put red herrings into this simple-minded murder mystery. With the way this tries to leverage doubt on the occasion by making her a potential suspect with the dreams being used to help intimate her as the culprit doing nothing more than throwing up a flashing sign saying this is a fake reading, it leaves only a few possible suspects who could be the main figure so this comes off somewhat underwhelming. There are also the film's obvious low-budget limitations here, not only the cheap gore and flimsy sets but also the exceptionally awkward stripping dances that are focused exclusively on the girls in isolated settings rather than in a fully-packed club of admirers so it feels a little cramped and low-budget, lowering this one overall.

Rated R: Nudity, Graphic Language, and Violence.

There are some real nice aspects to this film, which make the confusing editing and the sudden, mediocre ending to be real disappointments. How do you rate a flick that has a whole lot of naked dancing and a bunch of dialogue leaving you saying, "Hey that's clever," but where they didn't bother to perfect it? The other reviewers averaged it out to the middle of the scale, while I placed it higher. There aren't enough clever movies made, and that weighed more with me. And I guess I needed my fix of nude women. I didn't find these gals very attractive but that's fairly realistic for strip clubs. Perhaps this flick will inspire the physically impaired to consider becoming cops. This--witty dialog but blah plotting--is sort of backwards to the way I usually find things.