Frankenhooker - Synapse Films

I meant to watch this and write about it before Halloween, but time and laziness got away from me. But who needs the excuse of Halloween to enjoy Frankenhooker on 4K? Not this fucking guy, that’s for sure!

Frankenhooker is a video store classic for me. Not because I rented it so many times, but because I remember seeing this on the shelves all throughout my childhood and teen years but never pulling the trigger and watching it. Man, did I fuck up. Sure, I shouldn’t have watched this when I was ten, but this would have hit so much harder in my teens. Watching it for the first time in my 40s was still enjoyable, but I’ll always wonder how different my life might have been if I had watched cracked out hookers explode when I was thirteen. 

Clearly, I had a lot of fun with this, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. I’ve watched a lot of horror-comedies throughout the years, and it’s a fine line to walk that most films woefully fuck up by being too silly, or too cheap, or just too shitty. Thankfully, Frankenhooker knows exactly what it is without trying too hard. The effects are just good enough to be funny and a little grotesque but never distractingly cheap. And while the entire premise is silly as shit (a guy Frankensteins his girlfriend out of dead hooker parts after she is killed by a lawnmower), it never gets so stupid that it becomes boring. Co-writer and director Frank Henonlotter (whose name sounds like a drunk person trying to say “Frankenhooker”) threaded the needle in an impressive way. 

On a personal note, I was delighted to discover that the star of the film was James Lorinz, an actor I will forever remember as the wormy Brett Weir from The Jerky Boys movie. He’s great and brings the perfect dipshit genius energy to the role.

But the star of the film is the titular Frankenhooker. Even though she doesn’t appear as Frankenhooker until late in the film, Patty Mullen’s short performance is quite funny. Her immediate angry hooker persona is fantastic, with her first words being a demand for money from Lorinz.

Frankenhooker is obviously just a bit of stupid fun. It would probably be more than that for me if I had watched it years ago, but there’s still some magic to this sleazy, crazy movie. This is a great release for any fan or newbie.