Frankenhooker
(1990) dir. Frank Henenlotter
viewed: 08/17/02
Though I had a friend who really who was really into this movie around the time of its original release, I somehow never managed to catch it. I guess that is what these little mini-marathons are all about.
Frankenhooker is a pretty entertaining piece of campy perversity, from Frank Henenlotter, the director/writer of Basket Case (1982) & Brain Damage (1988), both notable trash horror films in their own right — I believe. I will add both are films to my list of movies that I should see again soon, since I don’t remember them well enough at the moment.
The opening shot offers all one would need to know about the film’s tone. James Lorinz, who is pretty funny as the muttering amateur mad scientist/electrician Jeffrey Franken, is busily working at the kitchen table during a family picnic on a big brain with one eye in a jar while his family hardly bats an eye, trying to get it to focus on his finger. The special effects are comically over-the-top, not at all naturalistic. It’s clearly a world of grotesque absurdity.
When one of Jeffrey’s inventions dismembers his girlfriend, he decides to recreate her a la Frankenstein. In this version of the tale, though, he decides to get his body parts from NYC prostitutes, figuring that they already are in the practice of “selling their bodies.”
When she finally emerges, the Frankenhooker herself isn’t by any means the funniest part of the film. I guess it’s a little funnier in concept than in execution.
The funniest part of the film is the “super crack” and its effect on living organisms.
This movie is sick. But sick being a perverse and genuine pleasure.
