‎Dressed to Kill (1980) directed by Brian De Palma • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Dressed to Kill

1980 Directed by Brian De Palma

The Latest Fashion In Murder

A mysterious, tall, blonde woman wearing sunglasses murders one of a psychiatrist's patients, and now she's after the prostitute who witnessed it.

Michael Caine Angie Dickinson Nancy Allen Keith Gordon Dennis Franz David Margulies Ken Baker Susanna Clemm Brandon Maggart Amalie Collier Mary Davenport Anneka Di Lorenzo Norman Evans Robbie L. McDermott

105 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 10

93/100

The opening of Dressed to Kill, with its soft-core seduction and luscious yet calculated imagery, is Brian De Palma grasping his fundamental characteristics and shrinking them into a singular sequence of delight and horror. A woman, standing naked in the shower, is watching her husband shave behind the foggy glass, and as dreams morph into fantasies and nightmares, we as an audience witness an entire history of a relationship through sensual gestures and primal fixations.

It is this woman, played by Angie Dickinson, who De Palma takes not as his main subject but as a flirtatious prisoner of sorts. Cutting from the opening sequence, we see Kate having sex with her husband in an unromantic and unsatisfying fashion, and…
Review by Sally Jane Black 24

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

If you've been following along, you can probably guess what I hated about this. De Palma's style is great. He's got this slick, noirish feel that makes good use to shadow and reflection and odd angles to drive the intensity of any given scene, but almost right away, I predicted his big twist. And, of course, the twist left a sour taste in my mouth. All the Hitchcockian references, all the gloriously bloody murders, all the weird inventions by the hapless kid that could make this a great film seem wasted by the transphobic plotline.

The list of films that commit this sin is a long one. [SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR OTHER FILMS--I CAN'T SAY WHICH ONES WITHOUT SPOILING THINGS ABOUT…
Review by sydney ★★★★ 3

I like the acknowledgment of how tough it is to be a gal, the sympathetic look into an older woman's desires, the touched-upon-but-not-fully-developed issues of victim blaming, the confusions of masculinity and femininity. That all this is done from such a ~sexy~ male point of view is...questionable, as is, obviously, the implications of the ending. But the gender politics should be dissected by someone smarter and more knowledgeable than me.

Leave all of that out of the equation, and you still have a beautiful thriller that pulls off being campy AND scary AND exciting AND emotional all at once. Elegant exploitation.

De Palma had a Hitchcock marathon, watched a few 70's Argento films, drank a bottle of whiskey, passed out...and this film is us watching his dreams. The "rip off or homage?" debate is valid, but I like to think that he saw the sexuality just begging to be let out in Hitchcock's films, and decided to set it free.
Review by Aaron ★★★★ 17

Part of Hoop-Tober 2016

“Look, I know what dirty is, and this is dirty.”

Werner Herzog has often spoken of what he calls “ecstatic truth”—the ability of literature, music, and film to reach a deep, profound, poetic level of truth beyond mere factual reality. A recitation of facts can be informative, but it is not necessarily illuminating—it is “the truth of accountants,” superficially accurate but devoid of mystery and character and complexity. Ecstatic truth probes beyond that to levels of abstraction and imagination, reaching the elusive, ineffable parts of the psyche and the soul that make us human. An encyclopedia entry on fear may yield scientific detail on autonomic responses, but it can’t hold a candle to a viewing of…
Review by Grooveman ★★★★★ 3

More epic trash from De Palma. His shot compositions are so ridiculously awesome I could watch any of his films on repeat and never need to watch anything else.
Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 2

Brian De Palma is a crazy person with his absurd, American giallo Psycho movie.

Recent reviews

Review by warnerchild ★★★

I'll be sad when this depalma ride is over

This unsafe film feels very safe

But it's full of what we love him for sooooo
Review by Brian Dominguez ★

I watched this after watching Blowout and it's a testament to Brian De Palmas versatility as a filmmaker, he can make Blowout one of the best movies I've seen and he can make Dressed to Kill the most stupid movies I've seen.
Review by Marcelo Poppolino ★★★★★ 1

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

michael caine de peruca
Review by Ben Reyes ★★★★★

Okay, first let’s be real here: Nobody comes to a Brian de Palma film for the subtle. We come to be entertained by glorious melodrama, crazy twists, and de Palma’s characteristically striking direction, all of which the deliciously twisted Dressed to Kill has in spades. While utterly pulpy, Dressed to Kill is a film that knows it’s pulpy, knows it’s melodramatic, and takes devious and deviant pleasure in being that kind of movie, and so it serves up the goods in a way that only de Palma can.

De Palma, an avowed Hitchcock fanatic, creates a whole film that serves, like many of de Palma’s best, as an extented love letter/homage to Hitchcock’s work, albeit filtered through De Palma’s notoriously…
Review by clawilson ★★½

Oh if only the movie wasn’t full of things that perpetuate negative stereotypes against Black men and trans people :/ enjoyed the exploration of masculinity and femininity tho
Review by CarloBecerra

My cocaine
Review by Finneas Scott

Not a good or interesting twist. Transphobia abounds, plus more fucked up shit.

But sure it’s.... pretty? I like De Palma but come the fuck on.
Review by Benjy Klostermann ★★★½

Really enjoyed this. Cheeseball melodramatic opening lulls you into a soporific state before unleashing some early violence. Pacing is methodical while holding the suspense, and brings terror at just the right times. Plus solid score, and brilliant camera work. Fabulous build and ending as well!
Review by Jorge Junior ★★★

senti um sabor de psicose........

ps: engraçado no final a menina toda didática explicando o que é um transexual