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Oct 23, 2016ManMachine rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Released in 1980 - Dressed To Kill (directed by Brian De Palma) is a stylishly gruesome horror story about sexual frustration, madness, and the insatiable blood-lust of a truly pug-ugly, homicidal transvestite. So, I ask you - How does one intelligently discuss the rightful merits of this highly trendy horror/thriller without first seriously comparing it to Alfred Hitchcock's classic, slasher-flick - Psycho? It can't be done. The parallel in directorial style and technique between these 2 films is just too blatantly obvious. To say that director De Palma "borrowed" like a literal psycho-maniac from Hitchcock for this picture would surely be an understatement. Now, I'm not saying that this was necessarily a bad thing..... It's just that when it comes to the art of blatant borrowing, this film in question is so easily unmasked as being nothing more than a pale imitation. And that inevitably destroys any potential originality that it might have had to offer on its own merits, thus leaving it entirely exposed, like an opened target, to endless criticism, both negative and comparative. (*Watch movie-trailer video*)