Frankenhooker
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Movie Reviews of Frankenhooker
Movie Review: Even as pure schlock, not very compelling...
Summary: 2 Stars
Yeah, I watched a movie called "Frankenhooker". Frank Henenlotter, the man behind low budget gore fests such as Basketcase and Brain Damage, puts a new spin on the old Frankenstein story with Frankenhooker. Anyone who has seen any of the forementioned titles would agree that the movies Henenlotter makes are great adventures in schlock horror that are packed with imaginative characters and storylines with a very small hint of underlying message to them. Frankenhooker, however, is a horror comedy that comes up empty in just about every category.
Three time medical school reject turned power plant employee Jeffrey Franken carries out his controversial experiments in his mom's garage. The trouble begins when his latest invention (a remote control lawnmower) goes haywire and chops his fiance to bits. Convinced that he'll never find love again, Jeffrey hatches a plan to resurrect his girl. Taking a drive down to the scummiest streets of Times Square, Jeffrey picks out women of questionable virtue, eventually to harvest their parts to make the perfect body with his fiance's head as the centerpiece. Taking note of the ladies' fondness of crack, Jeffrey invents "super crack" to lure them into his murderous trap. However when his scheme comes to fruition and his Frankenhooker is brought to life, she goes on a sleazy rampage that leaves her clients in pieces. Jeffrey struggles to put an end to the madness before it's too late.
Frankenhooker probably looked good on paper, but the resulting movie is just bland and generic-feeling. The comedy doesn't work, not a drop of horror to be spoken of, and even the gore is rather scarce. The story really doesn't go anywhere until well after the movie is half over, and when it does get rolling almost everything that occurs completely transcends logic. At a mere 80 minutes long, it seems the ending credits begin rolling before it even has much of a chance.
On a positive note James Lorinz is quite funny as Jeffrey, although that can be attributed to his appearance and mannerisms more than it can to the actual content of the movie. The footage of Times Square is great and succeeds wildly in capturing that sleazy feel that they were most likely going for. With a few decent death scenes to speak of, Frankenhooker is okay. Not the stuff dreams are made of, but worth a viewing if you're into cheesy horror comedies, and even then you can do better.
Movie Review: Doesn't deserve its cult status, but not entirely awful.
Summary: 2 Stars
Frankenhooker (Frank Henenlotter, 1990)
Frank Henenlotter has directed very few films in his almost thirty-year career, and anyone who's seen them knows why. And yet two of his movies have achieved true smash-hit status in the cult world, Basket Case and Frankenhooker. I've finally got round to seeing the latter twenty years after it was first released, and it's just as awful as I expected it to be, but there are a few touches that make it better than the average Henenlotter flick.
Plot: Jeffrey Franken (Last Exit to Brooklyn's James Lorinz) is a failed med student working as an electrician. He's got a lovely fiancee, Elizabeth (Doom Asylum's Patty Mullen in her only other feature), and he keeps himself occupied with his strange experiments when she's not around. A horrible birthday party accident leaves Elizabeth in pieces (the TV news story about the incident is one of the film's highlights), and suddenly Franken has motivation--he'll bring Elizabeth back! The only problem is all the parts he's missing. Where to get those? Aha! We'll use hookers!
Yeah, that's pretty much it. There's a subplot featuring Zorro (Death Wish 3's Joseph Gonzalez), the pimp who runs the stable of hookers Franken ends up using for spare parts, and Franken's mom (hilariously overplayed by Louise Lasser) is thrown in for good measure, but this is an excuse for Henenlotter to get as many boobs onscreen as possible. (Unfortunately, none of them belong to Patty Mullen.) Still, when compared to other Henenlotter movies, and for that matter a good deal of the other stuff I've watched recently, it's got a few touches that actually make it almost worth watching. I've already mentioned the faux news report, which starts off ludicrous and gets crazier from there. Lorinz is not a bad actor, and Mullen is a bright spot in both the movies she made. This is not to say it's a good movie, but it's not a complete loss. * ½
Movie Review: There is "camp" and there is just plain boringly bad.
Summary: 2 Stars
This one comes under the second heading. After reading all the great reviews I ordered FRANKENHOOKER. I wish I hadn't. We did the "all sit down and have popcorn while enjoying a funny movie" sort of thing and it was a total bust -- even though the popcorn was good.
Let's ignore the fact the case the movie was in wasn't in very good shape. That isn't the fault of the film. My problem was, even thought I've been a fan of bad movies for years, they have to have some substance underneath the silliness. While there were a few ok moments, like when he was trying to find the right girls to bring home, for the most part we were all bored with it. I did like Louise Lasser as his mother.
I saw where one reviewer referred to this film as "side splitting and sexy". Maybe it's just me, then. I really didn't see anything like that in this one. I guessing you have to be in the right mind-set to really get into FRANKENHOOKER -- and obviously we weren't.