Blu-ray Review: Frankenhooker
Review by Uncouth
About five years ago I moved to a new town. I immediately struck up a friendship with one of my co-workers and I invited him over to my house to smoke some hookah (with legit Shisha) and watch Frankenhooker with me. I hadn’t seen the flick, but being a Frank Henenlotter fan I figured it would be pretty good. Little did I know the movie was going to blow his mind. For years afterwards when I told him I had a funky flick to watch he always compared it to Frankenhooker. For him, it was the high water mark for strange. He even bought the Frankenhooker shirt Fright Rags had a while back. Honestly, I didn’t remember anything about the movie other than his reaction to it, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that Synapse was re-releasing it on Blu-Ray, showing it the high def love it deserves.
I like Henenlotter’s oeuvre more as a whole than I enjoy the parts that create the sum. I’m a huge fan of body horror and his filmography is steeped in it. There is something truly frightening and disgusting about the idea of your own body rebelling against you. You can’t fight your own deformities, you can only live with ‘em, you know? His films, for me, are lovingly looked upon but rarely watched. There just always seems to be some sort of critical flaw that holds ‘em back from true greatness. My favorite of his is Brain Damage and it was around that time that he really hit his stride. His follow-up to that brain munching masterpiece was Frankenhooker.
Frankenhooker is about a man obsessed with the artificial creation of life. OK, so basically it’s the same plot as Frankenstein except this one has way more boobies. After his wife is hacked up by a remote control lawnmower of his own creation, he vows to resurrect her. The problem is that most of her bits were chewed up in the aforementioned lawnmower massacre. So he sets out to find himself some hookers, to steal their parts and mold the perfect woman. How does he dispatch them? Guns? Knives? Poison? Nope. Super crack. Huge hunks of toxic rock that, after they smoke the stuff, makes the girls explode! After collecting the parts and dodging the girls’ musclebound pimp, he puts the pieces together but, unfortunately, she comes back as more hooker than wife.
I dig Frankenhooker. I really do. It’s silly, it’s cheap and it’s fun. It’s a film that never takes itself seriously. It just wanted to make the audience smile and nod, which I did several times. It’s not particularly gory, though it does have some fun gags, and it’s not super sleazy for a flick about hookers either, though there is plenty of T&A. The whole mood is kept light, much like the naughty but not raunchy sex comedies it was mimicking. I think the problem with Frankenhooker is that it goes too far for most viewers but not far enough for fans of exploitation/sleazy flicks and it never found a strong audience. It also has a very long second act and a minuscule third act so the pacing is a bit off, but the film isn’t boring by any means, just uneven. I had a blast watching it, even with its shortcomings, and in the pantheon of Henenlotter films I’d probably put it as a solid #2 right after Brain Damage. It’s a silly piece of fluff that has party movie written all over it.
The disc itself looks great. The picture is crisp and clear with no grain. It’s a nice upgrade, though not worlds apart from the Unearthed DVD release. The special features are also the same as the Unearthed release with director commentary, Patty Mullen featurette, Jennifer Delora featurette and a production scrap book. So if you already own the now out-of-print Unearthed disc, you might just want to hang onto it. If you’re like the rest of us who missed the boat on the original release, its a damn fine flick and a nice presentation to add to your collection.
Frankenhooker is out now on Blu-Ray in the US from Synapse Films. A UK Blu-Ray from Arrow Video is out on January 2nd 2012.
