Sunday, October 11, 2015

31 Days of Horror 2015 Day 11 Zipperface


Zipperface unrated version
Source-Echo Bridge DVD

Now I love slasher films. And thought I had at least heard of all the ones released in the States during the 80s and 90s. Then I bought a 20 films for $5 pack. It was full of horror films and at that price I took a chance. Saw the name Zipperface and had to watch it.

Zipperface came out in 1992. Seems it was a DTV release. With an R rated and a unrated release. From my research the unrated version is becoming hard to find on VHS.

Set in the early 90s in a big city out in California,this is a slasher that tries to be different. And it is in a few ways. First off this is the first horror film I know of to use BDSM leather gear as the outfit for the killer. Zipperface looks like a twisted version of the Gimp from Pulp Fiction. He is hiring hookers. And once they come to him after tying them up he kills them. So of course a couple of detectives are assigned to track down Zipperface and stop them. This is kind of a throwback slasher. In that it feels more like an early 80s slasher. You get a few red herrings,the best being the sleazy photographer the female detective ends up dating.

If you remember the old show Silk Stalkings,imagine an R rated version of that show. But with way more sexual overtones.

I checked the running time and this DVD release is the unrated cut. But really there doesn't seem to be anything in this film that would prevent it from getting an R rating. Maybe the distributor had an R rated cut made so Blockbuster Video would carry it.Yeah if you didn't know Blockbuster had a policy of not carrying any unrated films. Blockbuster is the reason there is an R rated cut of Showgirls on VHS.

So if you are a slasher fan that has already seen all the 70s,80s and 90s slashers give Zipperface a watch. I still see that 20 pack all over for $5. And the same pack also has a decent looking copy of the hard to find proto-slasher Home for the Holidays. Those 2 films are worth the $5.

Zipperface gets a C-.