CSI: Crime Scene Investigation--'The Chick Chop Flick Shop'

CSI Files

Captain
Synopsis:

Repulsion Pictures, an adult horror film studio in Vegas, suffers a blow when their star actress, Weatherly Adams, is found dead, an axe in her back, prop blood pooling around her. The owners of Repulsion, brothers Vincent and Mason Lafoon, point the finger at a former employee, Oliver Zarco, who was fixated on Weatherly. When Brass questions Zarco, whose face is badly burned from an accident he suffered on the set of one of the movies, says he and Weatherly were an item before the accident. Weatherly dumped him after his face was burned and he lost his job, but he kept leaving her gifts to let her know he still loved her. Zarco insists he didn't killer Weatherly. DNA evidence proves the director, Zack Putrid, had sex with Weatherly, but he too denies murdering her. Dr. Robbins determines that Weatherly was killed not by an axe but by a cylindrical object, possibly a pipe. When the CSIs view surveillance footage of the warehouse, they see a man who looks like Vincent Lafoon opening the warehouse window to make it look like a prowler got in. Brass hauls Vincent in, but he, too, denies guilt.Based on the amount of blood Weatherly lost, Nick determines her body was moved. Hodges tells him that zinc was found around Weatherly's wound, indicating she was indeed killed with a pipe.

The CSIs go back to search the scene, and Nick finds the cap the killer was wearing in the surveillance video. When he notices the strap has been adjusted, he returns to the lab to look at the surveillance tape again and realizes the killer was taller than Vincent. He suspects Vincent's brother Mason may have tried to frame Vincent. Back at the warehouse, Catherine finds a large bloody pipe pointing upwards with blood in it, and Ronnie Lake discovers a broken red shoe heel from Weatherly. When the power goes out in the warehouse, the CSIs head separately back to the lab, but Ronnie discovers she's forgotten her cell phone and has to return to the dark warehouse. Catherine gets a call from Dickie Jones, a dwarf working on the film, saying he has information about Weatherly's death and insisting she meet him at the warehouse. Mason confesses to Brass that Weatherly died accidentally, but Stanley Vespucci, the production company's lawyer, wanted to make it look like a murder so that they didn't lose their liability insurance. Stanley came up with the idea to frame Vincent. Back at the warehouse, Ronnie finds Dickie's dead body hanging from a rafter. Terrified, she stumbles across another body--Zack Putrid. Thankfully, Zack is alive, but Stanley has followed, ready to finish him off--until Oliver Zarco, dressed in drag as Weatherly, shoots him point blank. Once they get him to the hospital, Zach tells the CSIs that Stanley shot Dickie after hearing him call Catherine and then went after Zach, who notes that it's "life imitating art imitating life."

Analysis:

An entertaining if far-fetched nod to the horror genre, "The Chick Chop Flick Shop" is definitely a lighter entry. As much as the show excels at heavy, dark episodes, it also does humor very well, as evinced by this episode. From Dr. Robbins and David Phillips bickering over horror movies to the big climax where Zarco, dressed as Weatherly shoots the villainous Stanley, there are more than a few chuckles in this episode. As soon as Ronnie Lake realized she'd left her cell phone back at the dark warehouse, I knew we were in for a spoof of the horror film convention of the pretty girl stuck in a remote place with the serial killer roaming around.

<HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45\%" COLOR="#007BB5">

To read the full reviews, please click here.<center></center>
 
Back
Top