Review of Dressed to Kill (1980) by Pera K — 06 Oct 2009

I just recently watched Brian DePalma's Dressed To Kill again and I must say that it holds up extremely well. Besides your basic 80's fashions and hairdos, Dressed To Kill is actually a very solid suspense movie. DePalma knows his craft and borrows liberally from Hitchcock to tell his erotic and spooky fable about a bored housewife, her young son, a touch call girl, a sketchy psychiatrist, and a confused and murderous transsexual. Yes, this is pretty much a sexed up, gore drenched, 80's version of Psycho, but it's quite good and certainly never boring. As Kate Miller, Angie Dickinson turns in an extremely underrated performance that should have gotten her some kind of nomination. Nancy Allen is cute as a button as Liz Blake, the hooker with a heart of gold and her life on the line.

The suspense is well drawn, the cast likeable, the direction superb, the screenplay taut and there's also a heavy layer of 80's cheese as well as some well done intentional humor. Dressed To Kill is a perfect film for open minded suspense lovers who are looking for something fun, a little sexy, and really creepy. Dressed To Kill still has it!