Load of rubbish!!

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Did you people see the same film I saw?

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This Henenlotter guy is really something special. Basket Case 1 & 2 are nut, Brain Damage is completely insane and Basket Case 2 and Brain Damage contain 2 ultimately craziest sex scenes I have ever seen. But Frankenhooker exceeds all previous achievements. Combination of Jack the Ripper and Dr. Frankenstein with silly twist at the end. It's categorized as horror/comedy, but to me it isn't either funny or scary. But it's full of naked ladies to compensate. In my vocabulary this kind of movie goes under "Wtf I just watched" genre. Objectively, this is complete crap, but I have to recommend it and I will definitely watch it again some time, cause I'm thrilled with its level of greatardation. Its quality deserves 1 or maybe 2, but it's retardaedal for 10, so whatta hell, I'll give it6/10P.S. Just in case it's less obvious than I thought:Retardaedal = retarded + daedalGreatardation = greatness + retardation :D

Another "Frankenstein" spoof? Yes, and "Frankenhooker" does what not even "Young Frankenstein" thought of. In this case, we have a medical student trying to reanimate his bride (whom he lost to a runaway lawnmower). Looking for new parts, he gives prostitutes crack, and let's just say that you've never seen anything like this! It's one of those movies that's not afraid to do anything that it wants, and I have no doubt that they had a lot of fun making it. I mean, how often do we get to see a pimp freak out as a head hurtles towards him? The only cast member whom I recognized was Louise Lasser, who was married to Woody Allen from 1966 to 1970, and starred in his movies "Take the Money and Run", "Bananas" and "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex" (she more recently appeared as Hank Azaria's mom in "Mystery Men" and one of Ellen Burstyn's friends in "Requiem for a Dream"). She was also the star of the sitcom "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman". Let's just say that this is a VERY different movie for her. It's one of those movies that you watch just to appreciate the fact that they were willing to put a lot of this on the screen. A really fun time.

Frank Henenlotter is famous for directing the Basket Case movies and Brain Damage, which is a fantastic, uncelebrated horror gem from the 1980's. I saw Frankenhooker recently, another of Henenlotter's cult films, and if you had a choice between seeing it and Brain Damage, I really couldn't recommend Brain Damage more. Plot: the girlfriend of a medical school dropout is killed in a freak lawnmower accident (oh, so it's a comedy) resulting in him resurrecting her by using the assembled body parts of hookers. Killing prostitutes for their "parts" could work, kind of, I guess, as a kind of social commentary. I guess. Women in prostitution are indeed objectified, as they sell their bodies (almost always out of desperation) for sexual consumption. But prostitution is a notoriously frightening and grim way to make money, so I found the entirety of the plot disgusting. A crude term for a prostitute is "street meat," which robs prostitutes of humanity, edging them towards the realms of disposable commodities: but they're human beings. With that in mind, the 'comedy' of this movie really doesn't carry through. The movie wants us to like Jeffrey, the med school dropout, and perhaps even sympathize with him (aw, c'mon, he just wants his girlfriend back) but my stomach turns thinking about him. Additionally, he's played by the actor James Lorinz, who continually and annoyingly mumbles his lines in a tedious New Jersey-esque accent. Oi!The way I see it, Frankenhooker has two things going for it. First is its seedy presentation. The city and the sets where Jeffrey hires his hookers are infested with smokey, drug-fumed gloom. At any moment you expect to see teams of cockroaches and other vermin peeling out from the walls. There's some terrific worldbuilding and atmosphere at work here.Second is the film's climax. I won't spoil anything, but I found it happily creepy, and perhaps even poetic--which are feelings horror fans pursue in their movies like heroin junkies chasing that first, initial high.But there is not one laugh to be had in Frankenhooker. It works more as an offbeat fantasy, and not an especially great one at that. Watch Brain Damage instead.

I follow the blu rays coming out on the Arrow Video label, they are so well done. Naturally by following that line sometimes they deliver classics and sometimes the flick isn't really your stuff. I was a bit afraid of this one. Frank Henenlotter isn't my thing, I didn't like Basket Case and I surely didn't like Brain Damage. Frankenhooker did have a nice script, just looking at the title says enough. And doesn't we all remember Weird Science (1985)? It starts of rather good and I enjoyed it, I even laughed a bit with the lawnmower scene. But once Elisabeth is being killed by the lawnmower it becomes a typical Henenlotter flick. There's so much talking and nothing really is scary or whatsoever. The performances are okay, James Lorinz came out of Street Trash (1987) to take the lead as Jeffrey Franken. He went further to act in rather B flicks, the most famous one he was in was Robocop 3 (1993) but even there it was a small part. But most people were looking out for Patty Mullen, a Pet of the Month in the August, 1986 issue of "Penthouse.". The pictures taken were steaming hot and she even became pet of the year in 1987 and revisited her nude pictures in 1988. Her acting career was rather short, she only appeared in 2 horrors, this flick and Doom Asylum (1987). For doing a lot of nudity she only showed her nude ass and a small glimpse of her tits in Frankenhooker although it has a lot of juggs being shown from the hookers, the most famous ones are those tattooed ones from Jennifer Delora playing Angel. It was her first 'major' production. She was in a lot of exploitations and low budgets before playing hookers, the most famous being the Electric Blue series. On the effects part they worked rather good, still, it's low budget and it shows like the drilling machine not working in a close-up but still is drilling into a head, or the body parts were you can easily see that they are fake. But it's maybe the best of all Henenlotter's flicks, but it's so recognisable. Just look at the creators at the end, doesn't they look like the Basket Case creature? Still not my thing but I can understand that it will have his following now that it is out on Blu Ray. Gore 0/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 1/5