At a modeling agency in Milan, Italy; during the filming of a music video titled "Blades," a model named Sylvia O'Neal catches the eye of a perverted old businessman. The sleazy manager, Alex Conti, who often pimps out the models to clients, arranges a meeting disguised as a party. The naïve Sylvia attends the party and is soon raped in the hot tub after three other models restrain her. When Sylvia drives off, she is later found dead in a car accident. Soon after, a killer begins targeting all who had a hand in her rape.
Too Beautiful to Die contains the following tropes:
- A God Am I: David has a God complex and puts it on full display during his Motive Rant.
- Amateur Sleuth: Melanie came to Italy in order to find out what happened to Sylvia.
- Annoying Arrows: Lauren gets one in the leg during the climax.
- Asshole Victim: Aside from Sylvia, they all had it coming ,including the killer himself.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Considering how she seemed to take pleasure in watching Sylvia get raped, it's pretty fitting where Michelle ends up getting stabbed.
- Big Bad: David, the director is the killer.
- Big Damn Heroes: The police inspector shows up just in time to prevent Melanie from getting an arrow in her head.
- Blackmail: Achitze gets Alex to set up the meeting with Sylvia, by threatening to tell the police about his past dealings.
- Cat Scare: Happens literally when a stray kitten spooks Melanie. Also, happens again when Lauren's maid enters her apartment and interrupts her while she's taking a bath.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: The killer's disguise includes a black one that reaches to their knees.
- Cool Mask: The one shown on the poster, along with a black headscarf, which the four models wear during the opening scene. Also, it's donned by the killer before pursuing Michelle.
- Empty Shell: In their Motive Rant, the killer uses this word to describe how they feel about the other models, claiming that they're all just dead inside. Sylvia was apparently different, at least... before the rape.
- Failed a Spot Check: Leslie is murdered during filming when she is thrown into a prop iron maiden. Turns out, someone replaced one of the fake spikes with a real one.
- Groin Attack: Michelle is stabbed in the crotch before being tossed off the catwalk.
- Harassing Phone Call: The killer uses a looped recording of Sylvia's answering machine message to torment Lauren at one point.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Leslie, courtesy of a very real steel spike disguised amongst rubber ones.
- In Name Only: The movie's Italian title is "Sotto Il Vestito Niente 2," however, other than both having the premise of models being murdered, it has little to do with the original Sotto Il Vestito Niente.
- Killed Offscreen: Achitze's murder is only shown in crime scene photographs.
- Motive Rant: The killer delivers a lengthy one to Lauren after revealing themselves.
- Never One Murder: At first, it's only Sylvia who dies. Then, someone kills four of the people who played a part in her rape.
- No Full Name Given: David, Lauren, Lieutenant Brandam, Leslie, and Achitze
- No Range Like Point-Blank Range: As revealed in a flashback, Sylvia was killed when the murderer put a pistol up to her right temple and pulled the trigger.
- Psycho Knife Nut: The killer's murders are all committed with a multi-bladed knife stolen from the set.
- Red Herring: The film misleads the audience into believing that Melanie is the killer by having a scene where the real killer is being watched by her. Then, there's the latter half of the movie which focuses on the remaining cast finding out that she's Sylvia's sister, giving her ample motive for taking revenge.
- The Reveal: There are two reveals.
- Melanie is Sylvia's sister.
- David is the killer.
- Skewed Priorities: The killer does want revenge for Sylvia's rape, but only because it broke her and made her want to quit his production.
