Frankenhooker

Dir: Frank Henenlotter

1990

*****

Frank Henenlotter is a one of a kind comedy horror director best known for his Basket Case trilogy. He made Brain Damage (1988) and Frankenhooker between each film and personally I think the latter is his best work to date. Bill Murray (who had been filming Quick Change in the studio next door during filming) actually said upon its release "If you see one movie this year, it should be Frankenhooker" and looking back at 1990 I can't help but think he was right. It's an absurd and macabre comedy horror in the style of Braindead and Society with just a little added bad taste. Frank Henenlotter takes his horror seriously though, the film cost a whopping $2.5 million which was a lot for a B-Movie horror and he hired actors from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). However, many of the SAG members wouldn't do nudity so Henenlotter went to his local stripper bar and got membership for many of the girls and promptly hired them as legitimate actresses. The film follows Jeffrey, a young man who lives in New Jersey, who is heartbroken after his fiancée Elizabeth is killed by a lawnmower during a cookout. He decides that the only way to confront her loss is to use his science skills to bring her back to life. As her body has been cut into pieces, Jeffrey must take new parts from other women and he ultimately chooses to harvest them from the bodies of prostitutes working in and around New York City who he lures back into a party and kills via exploding crack (what else?). He uses the body parts to bring Elizabeth back to life; her mind, however, isn't fully restored. The newly revived creation escapes and begins looking for customers, who end up exploding after encountering her. Jeffrey also has problems in the form of the pimp Zorro, who comes looking for the women Jeffrey hired. He threatens Jeffrey and strikes Elizabeth, which causes her to regain her senses. During all of this the spare hooker parts are reanimated into a many limbed monster, which drags Zorro away - but not before he kills Jeffrey. Wanting her lover back, Elizabeth decides to revive Jeffrey via the same procedure he used on her. Since the process only works on female bodies, Elizabeth had to use the hookers' body parts. Jeffrey has a brief moment of clarity before he realizes he only has female body parts. He then begins to groan in shock as Elizabeth says they will be together forever. The film then cuts to black, a wonderfully macabre take on the Frankenstein story with a shocking ending that is part Brothers’ Grimm and part Shakespeare, or H.P. Lovecraft meets Playboy if you will. Due to the film's graphic nature, it was hard for Henenlotter to acquire an R rating from the MPAA. A representative of the ratings body actually called Henenlotter's production office and said "Congratulations, yours is the first film to be rated S". Henenlotter assumed "S? For sex?" and the reply was "No. S for Shit". Henenlotter released it unrated. It is far from Shit. The scene where seven prostitutes take copious amounts of crack and explode makes it worth watching alone. It actually has quite a heartwarming message to it and a rather lovely ending I thought. It is fair to say they don't make them like this anymore, a unique and brilliant gore-comedy from a unique time in horror history. It is vivid, full of colour and loads of fun and unlike many an 80s horror film, it actually lives up to its outrageous title.