1990 American comedy horror film
Frankenhooker
is a 1990 American
black
comedy horror
film directed by
Frank Henenlotter
. Very loosely inspired by
Mary Shelley
's 1818 novel
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
, the film stars James Lorinz as medical school dropout Jeffrey Franken and former
Penthouse
Pet
Patty Mullen
as the title character.
Plot
[
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]
Jeffrey Franken, a young man who lives in
New Jersey
, is a worker at a power plant and a scientist who specializes in bioelectricity. He is about to marry his fiancee Elizabeth. At the birthday party of Elizabeth's father, Jeffrey presents him with an automatic lawnmower as a gift, but when Elizabeth tries to demonstrate it, she's caught in its path and gruesomely killed.
Jeffrey, in his grief, begins plotting to use his knowledge of circuits to rebuild Elizabeth and bring her back to life. His grief drives him to have mock dinner dates with the few pieces of Elizabeth he could salvage, as well as performing self-
trepanations
with a power drill to help himself calm down. He decides to make the perfect new body for Elizabeth, by harvesting the body of a
New York City
prostitute.
After meeting several girls and their abusive
pimp
Zorro, a muscle-bound temperamental
crack dealer
, Jeffrey tricks Zorro into letting him rent every one of the girls for a single night to find the one with the perfect body for Elizabeth. Inspired by a news report about crack cocaine causing the deaths of many New York prostitutes, he then develops a "super-crack" which he finds causes living beings to explode. Deciding he's doing nothing wrong as crack will probably kill the prostitutes anyway, Jeffrey lures them all into a hotel room under the guise of a "medical examination" and marks the girls with the body parts he wants for Elizabeth. However, as he begins to have second thoughts, the prostitutes all find the bag of super-crack and all smoke it despite Jeffrey's pleas, causing them all to explode into pieces.
Zorro hears the commotion and rushes to the room only to be knocked out by one of the flying heads of his girls. Jeffrey hurriedly puts the body parts into trash bags, promising to restore the girls once he brings Elizabeth back. After picking the perfect body parts and sewing them and Elizabeth's head together into a single body, Jeffrey uses the lightning from a nearby storm to shock Elizabeth's new body to life again. However, her body and face move awkwardly, and she can only repeat what the previous girls said before they died. The "Frankenhooker" escapes the basement and begins looking for customers, who end up exploding from electricity when they try getting intimate with her.
Jeffrey goes looking for Elizabeth and finds her at a bar. Unfortunately, Zorro is there too, and upon hearing her mention his name and recognizing her body parts, he angrily strikes her so hard that her head mostly detaches from her body. Jeffrey evades Zorro and takes Elizabeth home to repair her neck and revive her again.
After bolting her head more securely to her new body, Jeffrey wakes Elizabeth up, finding her memory restored. At first, Elizabeth is impressed that Jeffrey brought her back, but becomes furious when she realizes what her body is now made of and how Jeffrey obtained the parts. Jeffrey tries to explain himself, but he is attacked and decapitated by Zorro, who's followed him home. Zorro then attempts to drag Elizabeth away with him, justifying himself by claiming that most of her new body belongs to him. However, the spare hooker parts have also been reanimated by the storm and merged into multiple grotesque limbed monsters, which overwhelm Zorro and drag him away into their storage cooler to his presumable death, along with his drugs.
Elizabeth decides to revive Jeffrey via the same procedure he used on her, but since the process only works on female bodies, Elizabeth is forced to put Jeffrey's head on a body made of the hookers' body parts to bring him back. As Jeffrey awakens, Elizabeth happily says they'll be together forever as Jeffrey moans in horror at his new female body.
Cast
[
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]
- James Lorinz as Jeffrey Franken
- Patty Mullen
as Elizabeth Shelley/Frankenhooker
- Joanne Ritchie as Mrs. Shelley
- Paul-Felix Montez as Goldie
- Joseph Gonzalez as Zorro the Pimp
- J.J. Clark as Mr. Shelley
- Gregory Martin as Rufus McClure
- Carissa Channing as Dolores
- Shirl Bernheim as Elizabeth's grandmother
- Hannah York as Mary Jane
- Helmar Augustus Cooper as Detective Anderson
- Heather Hunter
as Chartreuse
- Louise Lasser
as Mrs. Franken
- Charlotte Kemp
(credited as Charlotte Helmkamp) as Honey
- Lia Chang
as Crystal
- Kimberly Taylor as Amber
- Shirley Stoler
as Spike
- Jennifer DeLora
as Angel
Release
[
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]
Frankenhooker'
s initial release was delayed because of difficulty obtaining an R rating from the MPAA; the director recalls that one representative of the ratings body actually said, in a phone call to the production company's secretary, "Congratulations, you're the first film rated
S
." And she said, "
S
? For sex?" And they said, "No,
S
for
shit
."
[3]
To his dismay, Henenlotter's conservative parents insisted on attending the film's premiere in New York City; Henenlotter expressed surprise that they were not offended by the exploitative elements.
[4]
Reception
[
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]
The film has a 60% on
Rotten Tomatoes
based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 5.09/10.
[5]
Variety
wrote, "
Frankenhooker
is a grisly, grotesque horror comedy recommended only for the stout of heart and strong of stomach."
[6]
Vincent Canby
of
The New York Times
wrote that "there is a legitimate sense of the absurd lurking within Frank Henenlotter's
Frankenhooker
," but it is "overshadowed by special effects" and elements that recall soft-core pornography.
[7]
Kevin Thomas of the
Los Angeles Times
called it a "hilarious, totally outrageous grin-and-gore comedy."
[8]
Frankenhooker
was named "Killer B Film of the Year for 1990" by
E! Entertainment Television
's Attack of the Killer B's segment.
Bill Murray
was quoted as saying "If you see one movie this year, it should be
Frankenhooker
." Henenlotter said that Murray had been editing his film
Quick Change
and hung out with the
Frankenhooker
crew. After Murray expressed interest in their film, the distributor attempted to get an endorsement from him. Embarrassed that they would abuse Murray's friendliness, Henenlotter attempted to avoid Murray. When they eventually ran into each other, Henenlotter apologized and explained that he was not responsible. Satisfied with the explanation, Murray volunteered a quotation.
[9]
Home media
[
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]
Frankenhooker
was released on
VHS
in 1990, by
Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment
, and had an interactive box which had the titular character exclaim "wanna date?!" when you pressed a button on the box.
On November 8, 2011,
Synapse Films
released
Frankenhooker
on
Blu-ray
. This edition has reversible cover art, with the original theatrical poster on one side and newly commissioned artwork on the reverse side. The disc contains a 2K
high definition
transfer of the film and a digitally remastered 5.1 audio mix, as well as an audio commentary track from writer/director Frank Henenlotter and make-up effects designer Gabe Bartalos, three featurettes and the original theatrical trailer.
[10]
The special features from this release were also available on the
DVD
version of the film, released on September 10, 2013.
On January 2, 2012,
Arrow Films
released a special edition Blu-ray of
Frankenhooker
. Like the Synapse release before it, this edition also has reversible cover art, featuring both the original theatrical poster art and newly commissioned art (different from the Synapse version). This edition includes many
UK
exclusives, including an audio commentary from Henenlotter and star James Lorinz, a documentary titled "Your Date's on a Plate" and a tour of Gabe Bartalos' effects lab in
Los Angeles
. It also includes all three featurettes from the Synapse release, as well as trailers for the films
Basket Case
,
Basket Case 2
and
Brain Damage
, all of which were also directed by Henenlotter.
[11]
See also
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"
Frankenhooker
(18)"
.
British Board of Film Classification
. June 4, 1990
. Retrieved
July 6,
2023
.
- ^
"
Frankenhooker
"
.
Box Office Mojo
. Retrieved
December 30,
2015
.
- ^
Bett, Alan (May 10, 2013).
"Exploitation: An Interview with Frank Henenlotter"
.
The Skinny
. Retrieved
September 18,
2014
.
- ^
Thompson, Tristan (May 31, 2013).
"The Monster Movie Memories of a Brain-Damaged Basket Case: In conversation with Frank Henenlotter"
.
Fangoria
. Archived from
the original
on January 24, 2015
. Retrieved
September 18,
2014
.
- ^
"Frankenhooker (1990)"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
. Retrieved
March 21,
2020
.
- ^
"Review: 'Frankenhooker'
"
.
Variety
. 1990
. Retrieved
September 18,
2014
.
- ^
Canby, Vincent (June 15, 1990).
"Frankenhooker (1990)"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
September 18,
2014
.
- ^
Thomas, Kevin (June 1, 1990).
"MOVIE REVIEW : 'Frankenhooker': A Fun Slice of American Gothic"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
September 18,
2014
.
- ^
"Exclusive Interview: Frank Henenlotter!"
.
ComingSoon.net
. February 8, 2010
. Retrieved
August 3,
2018
.
- ^
"Frankenhooker [Blu-ray] | Synapse Films"
.
synapse-films.com
. Archived from
the original
on July 24, 2011.
- ^
"Frankenhooker Blu-ray | Arrow Films"
.
arrowfilms.com
. Archived from
the original
on July 12, 2020.
External links
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