Frankenhooker Review


Movie: Frankenhooker
By: Maniac E
Date: November 19, 2012

A Terrifying Tale Of Sluts And Bolts.

This is a reason why b-movies are fun to watch, a mixture of horror, comedy and gore. And what better than to mix it up with a Frankenstein story and take this with a main character that puts a drill into his head once reaching a break down. You know you got some cult going on, right there!

Frankenhooker starts at the New Jersey home of Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) where at a birthday party a freak accident with a remote controlled lawnmower leaves his fiance Elizabeth Shelley (Patty Mullen) in pieces all over the garden. Medical school dropout Jeffrey is devastated & decides to combine his medical & electrical knowledge to bring Elizabeth back to life, with only Elizabeth's head to work with Jeffrey has to find her a new body & decides to travel to times square in New York to pick up prostitutes in order to construct the perfect body for his beloved Elizabeth...

Frankenhooker

Co-written & directed by Frank Henenlotter this horror comedy is quite enjoyable if your in the right mood, a silly mix of horror & sex Frankenhooker is fun if nothing else. The script is obviously a parody of the classic novel Frankenstein with Henenlotter's brand of bad taste humour & quirkiness the main thing going for it, from lawnmower accidents to exploding prostitutes to electrifying sex Frankenhooker is not the type of film for those with delicate moral sensibilities. Like a lot of films like Frankenhooker it's a mixed bag, some of the humour and crudeness works and it's occasionally amusing while at other times the jokes and gags fall a bit flat while horror aspect is also varied with some weak effects spoiling a few scenes. The characters are pretty cartoon like with the re-animated Elizabeth quoting prostitute pickup lines and Jeffrey inserting a drill into the back of his head for inspiration, as you do. Frankenhooker is quite likable and at only just over 80 minutes long the pace is decent and it makes sure you will not end up looking at the clock. It beats most new horror comedy things lately.

Frankenhooker

There's plenty of female nudity and bare breasts on show even if some of the actresses who play the hookers aren't the best looking, to go with the nudity there's some gore as well including a couple of decapitations, some severed limbs, some blood splatter, some fake looking exploding prostitutes, a brain in a fish tank and a mangled mass of body parts that comes to life at the end. The final shock twist ending is sort of spoiled by the poor special effects but at least the makers tried to put as much on screen as they could even if they didn't have either the talent or budget to do their ideas justice. Apparently director Henenlotter improvised the pitch for Frankenhooker to a producer when his original didn't impress the money men, he has a small cameo as one of the passengers on the subway train.

Frankenhooker

Frankenhooker is one of those movies you either love or hate, and in my case I love it. It makes sure you have everything from gore to sex and humor. After seeing Frankenhooker your view on the options in Frankenstein like movies will never be the same. Of course the movie feels cheap and of course it falls flat in the machine of real movies but come on it is a great b-movie!


3/5




DVD REVIEW

Image quality

Detail is again very pleasing, contrast levels stable, and clarity good. There are no traces of severe denoising or post production sharpening either. Unsurprisingly, there is a layer of light grain that is very easy to spot throughout the entire film.


Sound

In my opinion, the most credible ones are during the party sequence (with the explosion), the storm, and then the bar sequence and portions of the finale. There is some extra movement and small dynamic nuances in each of these sequences Some great stuff from this 5.1 Dolby Digital version.


Extras


Overall

Frankenhooker is a movie that most will skip but for me it ended up as a nice suprise. Visually pleasing and great new audio track that has been used. DFW did it again with this one.


Dutch Film Works

Movie

Frankenhooker

Title

Frankenhooker

Director

Frank Henenlotter

Country

USA

Year

1990

Cast

James Lorinz, Joanne Ritchie and Patty Mullen