Nov 14 2008
B+ Movie Review: Frankenhooker
A common misconception regarding Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein is that it that “Frankenstein” is the name of the monster. The monster’s name is actually Adam, Frankenstein being his creator. This has not stopped people from adding “Franken-” to the beginning words to evoke the imagery of neck bolts, assembled body parts and things that should not be.
Examples include Frankenberry, Frankenweenie and today’s movie review subject: Frankenhooker.
Frankenhooker was made by the same minds that brought the cult horror films Basket Case and Brain Damage. In the same over the top, stomach unsettling fashion, we are entertained with a tale of a young inventor who loses his girlfriend to a horrible accident involving a remote control lawnmower of his own design. In order to fix this, our mad scientist protagonist decides he will resurrect his love by the means of an estrogen based reanimation fluid and parts from the bodies of a collection of hookers.
Seriously, this is plot.
This movie is kind of a horror movie in-joke, the sort of thing you’d laugh at if you weren’t up to watching ReAnimator or From Beyond for the fourteenth time. It’s humor rolls towards the macabre, occasionally taking a detour into the disturbing yet silly. The movie manages to take decapitations, crack cocaine, prostitution and a guy who relaxes by drilling holes in his head and make it all into a kind of slapstick nightmare.
Unearthed Films , a distributor that specializes in obscure and over the top films (such as B+ Movie Rock and Rule ), released this on DVD in 2006. I’m not sure I’d watch it again, but I find it interesting that there’s enough of an audience for it that someone decided to carry this on into the 21st century.
But how do I grade it… sadly, I give it a C. The movie is a niche picture for a sub-category of fans, not something that really touches a wider audience. This isn’t to say it is without charm, just without remorse and maybe without taste. If you walk into it eyes open, knowing that you’re going to be smirking at the screen one moment and then kind of ill the next, it’s worth checking out.
Me, I rented this twice in 1990. The imagery was enough to stay with me 18 years later and disturbing enough that I think I’m probably not going to need to watch it ever again.
