20 years after Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers became a cult classic, the genre that combines sex, horror and campy laughs remains alive. We find proof via 2008’s Zombie Strippers, a flick that essentially infuses the Living Dead movies with hot babes.

Set in 2012, a government lab develops a way to reanimate dead tissue. However, matters go awry and zombies result. A Marine team takes care of the undead at the facility, but an infected soldier named Byrdflough (Zak Kilberg) makes it out and brings the toxin with him.

In his panicked flight, Byrdflough ends up at Rhino’s, a strip club. He dies, comes back to life, and attacks stripper Kat (Jenna Jameson) during her routine. This immediately kills Kat, but she also returns to the land of the living, only partially worse for wear. In fact, her performance skills seem to be better than ever, and her act thrills the patrons.

Except for the one she takes back for a private dance, of course, since she eats him. The club’s management doesn’t really mind this, though. They deal with their undead patron and decide that zombie strippers will be a good thing because the customers go nuts only for the dancers who lack a pulse. The film follows the club’s operation and eventual attempts to quell a zombie plague.

I found it tough to write my synopsis because Strippers really doesn’t boast much of a story. It’s more of an idea than it is a narrative. Really, the title tells you all you need to know: this is a high-concept operation about zombie strippers, and that’s the extent of its ambitions.

Because of this, Strippers provides spotty entertainment at best. On the negative side, it thinks it’s much funnier and more clever than it is. The movie starts with a news crawl that posits a fourth Bush administration, and the film clearly aspires to create some social commentary. These moments seem feeble and fall flat. This isn’t a flick with a lot of brains behind it, and its attempts to offer anything more than silly thrills don’t succeed.

I will admit that Strippers does occasionally provide some fun. It’s hard to hate a movie about naked chicks, and despite its satirical pretensions, the film doesn’t take us self excessively seriously. It still offers a playful take on its ridiculous concept, so it manages to entertain.

Sometimes. Unfortunately, the concept tends to wear a bit thin, as it’s not enough to cover even the brief 94-minute running time. Strippers also sags after its opening. Once the soldiers deal with the lab, we enter an extended look at the strippers and other club denizens. That sequence feels padded and could’ve worked better if it’d moved more quickly.

Strippers also lacks concise construction. It tends to amble and ramble its way around its minimal story in a manner that makes it a bit frustrating. Every once in a while it looks like it’ll become more satisfying, but the absence of consistency hurts it.

I certainly wouldn’t call Zombie Strippers a terrible movie, and it sporadically accomplishes its goals. It just doesn’t become as much goofy fun as I’d expect. The flick keeps us moderately entertained for its hour and a half but nothing better comes from it.

Zombie Strippers appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Shot on high-def video, much of the flick looked very good, but a few issues affected my grade.

For the most part, sharpness satisfied. Wide shots tended to be a bit iffy, but the majority of the flick demonstrated nice delineation and clarity. I saw a few examples of jagged edges, but I noticed no shimmering or edge enhancement. Other than some light artifacting in darker shots, the image remained clean and lacked any source defects.

Colors tended to be vivacious. The movie featured a broad palette that accentuated the story’s topsy-turvy world. The hues looked lively and full throughout the film. Blacks were deep and dense, while shadows seemed acceptable. Some low-light shots appeared a bit thick, but most of them showed good definition. Overall, this was a solid image with only a few minor concerns.

As for the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Zombie Strippers, it also came with pros and cons. While the soundfield proved quite active, that wasn’t always a good thing. The movie boasted effects and music from all around the spectrum, but those elements didn’t always appear especially well-placed. Some parts of the track showed up in accurate spots, but others seemed more vague, like the audio wanted to impress us with quantity over quality. It wasn’t a bad sense of spatial delineation, but it could’ve been more defined.

Quality was generally positive. Speech suffered the most, as some lines demonstrated lackluster recording and weren’t terribly natural. I also noticed some edginess. Nonetheless, dialogue was understandable throughout the film, so those minor issues weren’t significant.

Music was the most impressive aspect of the mix. The score and songs showed nice range and definition. Effects were also pretty solid, as they demonstrated good clarity and impact. The lack of a natural soundfield made this one a “B-“, but it did have some strengths.

When we head to the set’s extras, we start with an audio commentary from writer/director Jay Lee and actors Jenna Jameson, Robert Englund and Joey Medina. All four sit together for this running, screen-specific discussion. They touch on cast and performances, deleted scenes, sets and locations, makeup and effects, stunts and action, costumes, and shooting the stripping scenes.

That’s a good mix of topics, and the commentary usually moves pretty well. The actors tend to dominate, so while we hear a fair amount from Lee, the performers fill out most of the chat. That only becomes a problem during the third act; at that time, Englund’s wacky comments take over and become somewhat annoying. Nonetheless, we learn a fair amount of useful info here.

20 Deleted Scenes fill a total of 39 minutes, 28 seconds. With so much footage available – much of which Lee touts during the commentary – you’d expect to find lots of lost gold, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. The vast majority of the new material consists of short additions to existing scenes. Even the completely new bits don’t contribute much to the piece. The only intriguing piece shows an alternate ending. Fans will want to give these clips a look, but most aren’t particularly interesting.

We can watch these clips with or without commentary from Lee and Englund. (Medina also shows up for one scene that prominently features his character.) They provide some good details about the sequences and how they change from the final film. Unfortunately, they don’t often tell us why the snippets got the boot, which is the main point of deleted scene commentary. That makes these observations moderately useful but disappointing.

Two featurettes follow. The Champagne Room: Behind the Scenes of Zombie Strippers runs seven minutes, 53 seconds as it offers notes from Medina, Lee, Englund, Jameson, producer Angela Lee, costume designer Brendan Cannon, actor/co-producer Calvin Green, and actors Catero Colbert, Travis Wood, Zak Kilberg, Penny Drake, Carmit Levite, Jennifer Holland, Jeannette Sousa, Laura Bach, and Whitney Anderson.We learn a bit about the movie’s origins, sets and locations, story and influences, cast and performances, and all Jay Lee’s roles on the flick.

“Room” provides a decent look at the production but not anything more than that. It covers some basics and throws out a few decent shots from the set. This makes it reasonably engaging, but it lacks depth or substance.

The Dressing Room: How to Glam a Zombie lasts four minutes, 49 seconds and features Angela Lee, Jameson, Englund, Jay Lee, actor Roxy Saint and and special effects supervisor/puppeteer Patrick Magee. The show examines the zombie designs and effects. Like “Room”, the show’s awfully short, but it contributes a moderately interesting look at the zombie work.

The DVD opens with a few ads. We get promos for Blu-Ray Disc, Boogeyman 3, Vacancy 2: The First Cut, and Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach. These also appear in the Previews area along with clips for The Art of War II: Betrayal, Resident Evil: Degeneration, Termination Point, Felon, The Lazarus Project, Linewatch, Anaconda 3: Offspring, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, The Fall, Tortured, Insanitarium, The Grudge 3, The Tattooist, Moscow Zero, Buried Alive, Fearnet.com and American Crude. Even with all those ads, no trailer for Zombie Strippers appears.

No one anticipates brilliance from a film called Zombie Strippers, so don’t expect anything great here. The movie occasionally entertains, but it lacks the consistency to make it satisfying. The DVD presents acceptable picture and audio along with a few decent extras. This is a reasonably good release for a moderately interesting genre flick.