Frankenhooker (1990)

Frank Henenlotter has tried to make it clear that he is not a maker of horror movies, but rather of exploitation films.  He is one of the few filmmakers that are proud to admit this, as exploitation films are usually thought of as artless attempts to earn a few bucks by promising lurid thrills and, more often than not, not providing what was promised.  To give Henenlotter his due he at least offers what it says on the box, whether it be a monster in a basket, a brain-eating parasite or, in this case, a woman made out of hooker parts. 

Jeff Franken (James Lorinz) is an inventor and a bit of a mad scientist.  His fiancé Elizabeth (Patty Mullen) loves him despite his eccentricities.  When he builds a remote-controlled lawnmower for  Elizabeth is eager to show it off and unfortunately ends up getting in its way.  She is killed and Jeff picks up what he can find, storing her head and a few other parts in a freezer filled with an estrogen-enhanced blood solution until he can figure out how to bring her back to life.

The opportunity arrives in a massive electrical storm, but Jeff is missing a new body for Elizabeth.  He gets the idea to find a prostitute, kill her using some experimental supercrack that he has invented, and put Elizabeth's head on her body.  Things don't go exactly as planned, but he still gets enough parts to build a new body, bringing Elizabeth back to life.  Unfortunately, she is not what he expects, and runs amok on 42nd Street and in Times Square.  Meanwhile Zorro (Joseph Gonzalez), the pimp whose prostitutes Jeff used, gets wind of what happened and seeks revenge. 

While definitely an exploitation film Frankenhooker is a bit different than Basket Case and Brain Damage.  Both of those had a dark sense of humor, but this was Henenlotter's first foray into straight comedy.  It is also quite a bit less bloody, and unintentionally most of the scenes involving dismemberment and such look fake, as if he was purposely trying to make fun of his mentors like Herschell Gordon Lewis.  While this was his highest budget movie so far, and he did have the money for better effects, the problem was a good portion of the more realistic limbs were stolen, forcing him to deal with the stiff ones.  Despite that he still whips out some great Cronenbergian horrors at the end that are much more convincing the majority of effects in the film.

James Lorinz is pretty much released to do his own thing with the character of Jeff Franken, with a great monologue on how he is starting to lose his grip on reality.  Mullen gets to do some great physical comedy once Elizabeth is brought back from the grave.  The one glaring problem is Joseph Gonzalez.  He looks imposing as Zorro but can't deliver lines to save his life.  Since most of his big speech is when he confronts Jeff toward the end it is much more noticeable than it would be otherwise. 

I know there are a lot of people who absolutely love this film, and I did find myself laughing out loud at some of the more inappropriate sections as well as some truly clever jokes, this didn't gel for me the way I hoped it would.  It may be the mannequin parts, and it may be that Lorinz's performance does grate after a bit, but I guess I was just hoping for something a little more than I got.  I still got a woman made out of hookers, and at least the makeup on Mullen was great, but there are also long periods where nothing seemed to happen that could have been filled by either blood or laughs.  

Frankenhooker (1990)

Time: 85 minutes

Starring: James Lorinz, Patty Mullen, Joseph Gonzalez

Director: Frank Henenlotter