Frankenhooker

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🎙️ EPISODE 379: 11.03.21 Do a search for "Frank Henenlotter" and one of the top results you'll see for the director is that he would prefer to be classified as an "exploitation" filmmaker rather than a horror or horror-comedy one. Perhaps most well-known for his Basket Case franchise — which I badly need to see! — Henenlotter clearly has a little something going on beyond the surface. And that the surface in the case of 1990's Frankenhooker heavily involves a series of prostitutes exploding because they've ingested "super crack," that little something is either impossible to see or abundantly clear, depending on the viewer. This clearly isn't over-the-top gore for gore's sake, although on a visceral level, making to-scale prosthetic models of hookers and having them blow up in a variety of manners IS rewarding simply on its own merits: the low-budget technical ingenuity and the panache to capture it all, rapid-fire and unrelenting. It taunts the senses and pushes the viewer to a place of WTF absurdity wherein they might not want or care to ask "why."

Because this is also the point.

And so I'm loathe to dissect this from a "social commentary" angle. Because: yeah, I don't wanna be "that guy." But on the other hand, how is this not perfect satire of the "Just Say No" era?


So, just to get this out of the way: I fully recommend this movie. I was shocked at some of the depth behind what was happening onscreen (almost as shocking as what was actually happening onscreen? perhaps), but this is also just an A+ B-Movie, with the perfect blend of gratuitous nudity and slapstick humor and awkward LoL bad acting...


You can write a long, entirely over-analytical essay tweezing out the thematic relevance of the "social commentary" stuff here. What about the pressure women feel to keep up appearances? ...


Not too mention probably the biggest theme: a critique of the male gaze. I mean, the plot of this is that a wacko inventor (named Jeffrey, like me! From New Jersey, like me! Oh wait...) accidentally kills his fiancée, keeps a few of her body parts (including her head), then plots to assassinate a bunch of hookers (by way of poisoning them with "super crack") and then reassembling her Frankenstein-style using the 'best' looking body parts. Shit, that's not even under surface! But — again — it's pretty hard to concentrate on, or glean from any of it when shit like this is constantly happening...

** CONTENT TRIGGER WARNING FOR THE REST OF THE VIDEO CLIPS: EXTREME WEIRDNESS/FAKE NUDITY **

Ultimately, this is right up there with the very best "B-Movies" you're likely to come across. Sure, Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen in the titular role is one of the worst actresses I've ever seen and part of me wonders if this made the movie a little bit better of kept it from being a Perfect 10 out of 10? For example, the final scene of the movie when our hero Jeffrey has also been resambled with female body parts (some more psychological musings to ponder?); it's pretty rough...


Buuuuuuut, these sins are all easily forgivable when the, in the scene just prior, the extra, reanimated prostitute body parts Jeffrey is keeping form tiny mutant monsters to kill their former pimp (and get one final taste of that super crack, baby!)...


This is one for the ages. A very special movie. And I will be checking out the rest of the Henenlotter filmography soon.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 378 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 380 ⫸

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