Fetish Factory aka Cabaret of the Dead – 2017

With a title like Fetish Factory, a movie can be infinitely sleazy and get away with it. There’s no way that anyone can miss the sexual innuendos in a movie with that title. And, to be honest, that’s exactly why I was watching it. I don’t usually think that a movie gets better by merely sexual situations of striptease but there’s definitely a relaxing feel to it. You don’t have to think so much and the plot is generally pretty dumb. Many of these movies are made just for the sole purpose of showing some skin. That is my opinion anyway. And with that said, I’m sure there are many exceptions, films that are pretty clever and horrifying despite the fact that there’s striptease and lots of skin in them.

However, this starts out pretty lightweight. I wasn’t paying too much attention, to begin with, but it’s obviously about a group of women making their living in the sex industry. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re prostitutes in any way. And maybe your opinion that pole dancing or scantily clad women entertaining a bunch of men, is an artform? Well, I kinda disagree. I know that pole dancing is a great workout though and I’m sure that I wouldn’t last two seconds doing it. So, big kudos to the ladies for managing it. Of course, I don’t think there’s any pole dancing in Fetich Factory anyway. The men watching the burlesque show do however have some fetishes. I guess that makes the title (duh!).

It’s more or less the usual stuff. Feet and toes, whipping and stuff like that. It’s obviously made with a humorous intent and it’s not really erotic anywhere. I get the feeling that Fetish Factory, as a movie, tends to make a little bit fun of itself. It’s kinda stylistic and you get some feeling that there’s actually a burlesque show going on. The funny, or strange thing, is that there are only four or five guys in the audience. So if they make a living out of this, the price for attending the show must be really really high. Besides, there’s more personnel than the girls. We have those who manage the show and some bouncer/makeup artist as well. A Male who is also highly sexualized.

So far so good. I still don’t have a clue what Fetish Factory is actually about when I see some strange fellows on the streets. They look really odd and I think it’s fairly obvious that they will interact with the girls at some point. Well, they do, and they’re kind of zombies. Meaning that they attack people and those bitten turn out to be more zombies. There might be a spoiler alert here but not everyone is turned. And if you figure it out before the ending, kudos to you! I didn’t and I found the ending to be pretty unusual and entertaining.

There’s a lame-ass explanation to the zombification of people though. I think they could’ve come up with something better. But as I said in the beginning, I think the main purpose is to show some skin and If’ you combine that with any horror element you might get a winner. I’m sure there are lots of people out there willing to put the logic aside just for an excuse to see some pretty ladies. And pretty they are! They’re a great feast for the eyes. But I would have wanted something more. I can’t say that they’re horribly bad actors either. They’re pretty good actually but I would have liked some more in the script.