KarateParty.org - Frankenhooker (1990)

FRANKENHOOKER
*** out of *****

Genres
Comedy
Frankenstein
Horror

1990
Directed by
Frank Henenlotter
Written by
Frank Henenlotter
Robert Martin
Cast
James Lorinz .... Jeffrey Franken
Joanne Ritchie .... Mrs. Shelley
Patty Mullen .... Elizabeth Shelley
J.J. Clark .... Mr. Shelley
Carissa Channing .... Dolores
Shirl Bernheim .... Elizabeths Grandmother
Judy Grafe .... Newscaster
Helmar Augustus Cooper .... Detective Anderson (as Helmar Cooper)
Louise Lasser .... Jeffreys Mother
John Zacherle .... Weatherman
Charlotte J. Helmkamp .... Honey (as Charlotte Helmkamp)
Kimberly Taylor .... Amber
Shirley Stoler .... Spike the Bartender
Joseph Gonzalez .... Zorro

Movies piss me off when they have a concept aimed at one section of the movie-watching public, but the content is aimed at another. Sometimes it’s just one character, in horror movies this is often a pregnant woman. When this pops up I often wonder if anyone in the audience feels any added dread because a prego is in danger. I know I don’t. Or it could be a film like It Came From Beneath the Sea, which on the surface is about an octopus destroying San Francisco, but is actually a romance between marine biologists. The great thing about Frankenhooker (and Frank Henenlotter’s films in general) is that its contents are aimed squarely at the sort of person who would watch a movie called Frankenhooker in the first place.

Jeffrey Franken is a modern-day mad scientist. He’s been kicked out of medical school, and works at an electrical company he can swipe equipment from. He’s experimenting on a brain with an eyeball in it when he’s called to join the family picnic. A new radio-controlled lawnmower he invented is given to his mother, but on its first test-run kills his fiancée Elizabeth.

Some of her body parts, including her head, aren't found by police. Jeffrey grabbed them and has them floating in a tank in the garage. He wants to revive Elizabeth, but has one main problem, not much of her body is left. So he devises a plan to find the perfect body and graft her head onto it. He sets up a “party” with a group of prostitutes, and measures them up to find which bits are the best. He’d planned to control them by modifying their beloved crack, but they find the new super-crack in his bag. He tries to stop them, they smoke it anyway and explode. Which gives him a whole lot of body parts to use, but a few complications such as a pimp named Zorro, a conscience which makes him want to revive them all as well, and a newly revived girlfriend who still has the hooker’s instincts.

While all this sounds great, there are two main drawbacks to Frankenhooker. Firstly, Jeffrey could have used an Igor. He spends a long-time alone, and a lot of time is spent muttering mad scientist stuff to himself. It’s sometimes amusing but often just noise. Secondly, some of the scenes (only some), once the initial shock wears off, are just shocking and not funny. The effect this has on your enjoyment really depend on your tastes, for me I was just thrilled by Henenlotter’s gall to put some of this stuff in a movie.

I do recommend Frankenhooker to the sort of people who like the idea of it. Gore, pimps, exploding hookers, breasts, brains with eyeballs. It has all this and more. When you think it’s leading up to something it won’t go through with, your proved wrong. It’s not the greatest, often times it’s not even good, but it does have a good set of balls. And a good set of balls is always worth a peek.

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