Horror comedy lives up to its gory premise

Unlike most exploitation movies that never live up to the shock and titillation they promise, this gory and garish horror comedy doesn't welsh on its title.

You want "Zombie Strippers"? You got 'em.

Busty, blood-soaked, naked dead women writhing on stage in front of hooting guys who throw down money as if playing at a craps game.

"Zombie Strippers" delivers the exploitative goods, from porn star Jenna Jameson showcasing her abundant feminine assets to a cast of unknowns subjected to bloody disembowelings, ripped tracheas, shot-gunned brains, bitten-off tongues and a crude form of vasectomy last seen in the black comedy "Teeth." Eeek!

This movie is so violently graphic and sexually centered that just a few years ago, the MPAA would have awarded it an NC-17.

The story, slathered with pretentious philosophical blather and cheap political jokes by director Jay Lee, takes place in the near future when President Bush has inexplicably landed his fourth term in office.

The Iraq war has apparently escalated, reaching Canada and Alaska. America has run out of soldiers. So, the administration authorizes the development of a serum that can re-animate dead GIs to continue fighting for freedom.

As expected, the government's test zombies escape their compound in Nebraska. One infected soldier winds up in an underground strip club where Lee attempts to recreate an undead version of the camp classic "Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens" as directed by Stuart "The Re-Animator" Gordon.

Ian Essko ("Nightmare on Elm Street" icon Robert Englund), a prissy germiphobe, manages the Rhino Club, where the head stripper, Kat (Jameson), rules at the top of the booty chain.

Killed by a zombie, she becomes a super hottie more alive on stage than when she was really alive. Soon, her peers either want to be like Kat, except for Jeannie (Shamron Moore), a brunette who would like to kill Kat, if she weren't, uh, you know.

The Rhino is also home to a Bela Lugosi caricature named Madame Blavatski (Carmit Levite) and a new arrival, Jessy (Jennifer Holland), a devout Christian forced to strip to make money for her Nana's colon surgery.

As you might suspect, "Zombie Strippers" pushes hard to be a cult movie. It doesn't just emulate the political subtexts of George Romero's "Living Dead" series; it bludgeons us with purpose.

We get an anti-capitalism message. (Ian doesn't care that humankind is at risk as long as he makes money.) We get anti-Iraq war references. ("Mission accomplished!" a soldier says, and his commander replies, "Where have I heard that before?")

We even get an anti-NRA moment when Ian points out the Second Amendment guarantees his right to own guns, not to know how to actually use his office arsenal.

Lee stuffs his script with philosophers' names. (Genet and Camus are characters in Sartre, Nebraska.) This amounts to intellectual window-dressing for a shallow screenplay where "Whatever!" becomes a running punch line devoid of cleverness and originality. The script even robs a "Back to the Future" joke: "Make like a tree and get out of here!"

Lee says the conformist themes of "Zombie Strippers" are inspired by Eugene Ionesco's absurdist play "Rhinoceros."

Yet, when we hear a funny line like Jessy's lament, "Oh, sweet irony," "Zombie Strippers" sounds more akin to the classically dumb "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama."

"Zombie Strippers"

1 star

Starring: Jenna Jameson, Robert Englund, Roxy Saint.

Written and directed by: Jay Lee.

Other: A Triumph Films release. Rated R for graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations, language. 92 minutes.