Dressed To Kill

Brace yourself for the razor edge of suspense!

A disturbed woman, adrift in steamy sexual fantasies. A New York psychiatrist who seems to have taken on one patient too many. A beautiful call girl caught between the cops and a vicious razor-wielding killer…and the killer herself; a tall, blonde, elusive psycho named Bobbi.

Dressed To Kill contains all the heart-stopping elements of a classic suspense thriller. But writer-director Brian De Palma turns up the heat and takes them one step further to create a masterpiece.

Michael Caine stars as the psychiatrist faced with a murderous puzzle: the sudden, hideous slaying of one of his patients – with a straight razor stolen from his office. Angie Dickinson delivers a warm and touching performance as the sexually unfulfilled woman who turns to him for help; Nancy Allen plays the high-priced hooker who opens her elevator doors on the grisly aftermath of Bobbi’s psychotic violence.

All the acting, including Keith Gordon’s wonderful portrayal of a brainy teenager turned sleuth, is vivid and superb – yet director De Palma manages to steal his own show. Since Alfred Hitchcock’s death, De Palma must be ranked our greatest living master of the macabre.

His previous films – the sensational Carrie, the moody, atmospheric Obsession, the carefully crafted and finely detailed The Fury – have firmly established his originality and strength of vision. Dressed To Kill is his most cool, sophisticated, stylish accomplishment to date.

You may recognize elements of Psycho, of Klute, of De Palma’s early works. But Dressed To Kill casts its ingredients in a shape and form so compelling, you’ll see all the conventions of the horror genre come to renewed, unexpected life – and scare you half to death.

Uncensored International Version.