Dressed to Kill
Directed by Brian De Palma
- thriller
- mystery
- horror
The story
After witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the real killer is intent on silencing her only witness.
What it’s like
Saturated colour and restless camera work define Dressed to Kill: Brian De Palma's frames are built with split diopters, slow crane sweeps and swooping Steadicam, often pivoting around a character in a mirror or through a window, while the palette runs to deep reds, cool blues and hot pinks under gleaming Manhattan light. The sound is equally deliberate, with Pino Donaggio's lush, swooning strings rising into shrill synth stabs and long passages of near-silence broken by ticking clocks and rustling sheets. The mood is glossy, seductive dread, with a sleek sophistication that curdles into nightmare, the kind of thing to watch late at night alone or as a stylish, unsettling double bill. Pacing is measured through its quiet domestic and seductive openings, then accelerates into sharp, jolting suspense. Its emotional register is cool and voyeuristic, following a lonely woman who must learn to trust a companion while being hunted. The violence is sudden and graphic: a long, bloody attack scene, a brief but startling shower murder, and a sustained stretch of sexual menace and assault that some viewers will find hard to sit through. Best for fans of Hitchcock-style suspense and bold formal style who can handle explicit horror and sexual violence.
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