When I get a movie from Lawrence that I'm not familiar with, my first course of action is to pop in the DVD and watch the trailer. From that point, I can usually plan the type of mood I should set myself in or, more importantly, what snacks I should have. A film with a more serious tone will warrant a glass of ice water and some salty peanuts. Something more light-hearted will result in a cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. Unfortunately, for a movie like Strip Nude For Your Killer, I didn't have a combo that could possibly reflect the sheer shame one feels watching something this sleazy.

Looking back on it, I'm thinking a Teeni drink and a can of whipped cream straight into your mouth are about the only things that would feel appropriate. Hey, if your mother/wife/girlfriend walked in on you watching filth like this, you may as well go for the whole hog and thus be able to divert their attention away from the screen and more towards the shameful meal you're eating.

The only reason I'm not mentioning boyfriends or husbands is because, to be brutally honest, if you're a girl and you're watching anything with naked Edwige Fenech, they're not going to complain. I guarantee it. All the guys reading this review are now simultaneously nodding in approval.

At times like this, I'm glad that I work for Monsters At Play, and not, say, the Boston Herald. Simply put, traditional “film critic” circumstances would make me hate this movie. It's stupid, sexist, gory, and did I mention sleazy? Indeed, as I was watching this, my inner Rex Reed was wailing in pain. “Why are you watching this still,” he shrieked, “that fat guy is carrying a blow-up doll and a butcher knife!” Indeed he is, I thought, before the killer, clad in motorcycle leathers, leapt out of nowhere to bury their knife again and again in the ample flesh of the fat man's back. “Is he pushing her head down so she can blow him?” Yep. Edwige Fenech (who, with her bobbed hair, looked kinda like a hot Shirley Jones) stopped her slow descent to her knees eye-level with Nino Castelnuovo's groin. Later in the film, Castelnuovo's character Carlo jokingly threatens Fenech's Magda with sodomy.

With such sleazy set pieces such as this, the plot deserves little mention: the staff of the fashionable Albatross studio are slowly being bumped off one-by-one by a killer clad head-to-to in black leather (apparently the gloves weren't enough) and a motorcycle helmet, who likes to tear off their victims' clothing and in the case of the men, castrate them. Carlo and Magda, when they're not bumping uglies, take time out to hatch their own investigation right under the noses of the comically inept polizia. This is certainly at the lower end of gialli plotwise, whose elements were either done before or done better.

So why do I still love this movie? For two reasons: its sleaze and its style.

As I mentioned before, this movie is so bottom-of-the-barrel nasty, its extreme nature becomes almost endearing. Once you get used to the sleaze (and you're dropped right in the thick of it from frame one), and the super tacky world it's taking place in, you find yourself hitting this weird groove deep inside your guts. Soon, your head starts bobbing in time with the ridiculously funkified music. The sound of a faucet running on screen (you'll see) gets you all giddy, snuggling under a blanket like a kid. If a movie about a castrating murderer taking revenge over a botched abortion can be considered fun, this my friend is fun!

As is the course with all of their other releases, Blue Underground offers up another amazing transfer for this forgotten anti-classic. Colors were vivid (especially, as usual, the reds) and even. Edges were clean and crisp, and blacks were quite deep, although a little grainy, which can be quite noticeable in the film's many nighttime chases. Audio was a perfectly clean mono mix, with razor-sharp dialogue and all that porno-style music sounding rich and full. Extras are a little lean, consisting of a trailer (which proves to be almost as enjoyable as the movie itself through inclusion of the most ridiculous narrator ever), and a 12-minute featurette called Strip Nude For Your Giallo, which has interviews with screenwriter Massimo Felisatti and actress Solvi Stubing.

All in all, Strip Nude For Your Killer is not a good film by any stretch of the imagination. However, if you're a fan (like me) of a naked Edwige Fenech being chased by a deranged killer, there's an awful lot to love here. Just make sure you hide it in a drawer when company comes over.