Review of Dressed to Kill (1980) by Brandon C — 22 Sep 2015

You think you know Brian De Palma!? You really think so?? I honestly thought I knew De Palma before I watched DRESSED TO KILL. Like everyone I've seen Scarface, The Untouchables, Mission:Impossible, and Carrie. All classics to say the least. Where's Dressed to Kill's honor? This is De Palma at his most artistic, this is his homage film to his icon, Alfred Hitchcock. And if you know your Hitchcock you're bound to catch shots, sequences, there's even a scene almost worked directly from Psycho into Dressed to Kill. The story itself in Dressed to Kill has the tones and atmosphere mirroring Hitchcock among other gods of cinema.

We begin our story regular housewife, played by Angie Dickinson, who after awakening from a very beautiful dream sequence goes and meets up with her psychiatrist Michael Caine. This meeting doesn't seem to bring anything new to the table so she decides to go to an art gallery where in an amazing sequence of following her, as if in a seductive cat and mouse game, as she tries to calmly and without drawing attention to herself rebuke the seduction of this very caricature version of a late seventies early eighties man. After the sequence is said and done and she does the implausible deed and goes through with what she feels she thinks she needs to do...SPOILERS...she's killed off and the rest of the movie is just the murder mystery being looked at by Nancy Allen's character, Michael Caine's character, and a lot of other amazing performances. Even a turn by a pre-NYPD Blue Dennis Franz with more hair. Eventually the ending and the big twist come about and I will not reveal it out of respect but it needs to be seen it will kind of leave you saying wha...and What?! Let's just say I kicked my legs in the air because the twist threw me off my feet.

I feel Dressed to Kill is Brian De Palma's artistic masterwork still to this day it trumps his whole filmography, except with Carrie being his most visually interesting, but besides that Dressed to Kill is Brian De Palma at his artistic peak. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves suspense films, murder mysteries, artistic cinema...In fact I can recommend this movie to pretty much everybody with the exception of those who are easily turned in by nudity and the erotic. All the naughty send little kids from the room stuff is done tastefully and without the sleaze. If you can get past it, especially the first 10 mins, you will enjoy this movie. I highly recommend it and I cannot wait to watch it again.