Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Brandon Pope
Frank Henenlotter's 1990 film Frakenhooker, for the most part, is a rather well made and funny movie. Where the movie goes wrong, in my opinion, is the ending. While most of the film is a hilarious take on the classic Frankenstein, the ending seemed rushed and really careless. By the time I reached the ending I didn't feel like the plot of the movie had successfully reached it's ending. In the end, our protagonist finally fixes his Frakenhooker of a girlfriend only for the villain to walk up behind him and cut his head off. Then a small subplot that was only referenced once pulls a deus ex machina and kills the villain for our protagonists. Then the Frakenhooker puts our protagonist's head on a spare hooker body and resurrects him for one final laugh as he sees that he is also a Frakenhooker. Another problem is there isn't a spare hooker body it just comes out of nowhere and seems weirdly out of place. As I mentioned earlier the ending is where this movie fails. Honestly, if I was going to recommend this film to a friend I would tell them to turn the movie off just after he fixes his Frakenhooker and just say they lived happily ever after or make up another ending because whatever you could come up with is better than what the film's ending has to offer.
Smoreni Zmaj
This Henenlotter guy is really something special. Basket Case 1 & 2 are nut, Brain Damage is completely insane and Basket Case 2 and Brain Damage contain 2 ultimately craziest sex scenes I have ever seen. But Frankenhooker exceeds all previous achievements. Combination of Jack the Ripper and Dr. Frankenstein with silly twist at the end. It's categorized as horror/comedy, but to me it isn't either funny or scary. But it's full of naked ladies to compensate. In my vocabulary this kind of movie goes under "Wtf I just watched" genre. Objectively, this is complete crap, but I have to recommend it and I will definitely watch it again some time, cause I'm thrilled with its level of greatardation. Its quality deserves 1 or maybe 2, but it's retardaedal for 10, so whatta hell, I'll give it6/10P.S. Just in case it's less obvious than I thought:Retardaedal = retarded + daedalGreatardation = greatness + retardation :D
Leofwine_draca
In the early '90s it was rare for a film to possess much in the way of originality, which is why Frank Henenlotter's campy spoof of the Frankenstein theme stands out from the crowd. Sure, the film is full of the awful rubbery special effects so popular in late '80s cinema, but for once it possesses some imagination, some ideas which make it a great deal more entertaining than half a dozen of your low budget no-hopers.The camp tone of the film is set out from the start when our hero's girlfriend is killed by a lawnmower, of all things (although this cut-away scene is no match for the infamous classic finale of BRAINDEAD). Yes, the film does depend almost solely on goofy jokes for entertainment purposes, but there's no harm in this. Okay, so perhaps a little more wit would have improved things all round, but you can't have everything.The acting consists of either mugging at the camera (especially in the case of the title character, who performs some ridiculous gurning), or being just plain bad. James Lorinz himself isn't too bad, and there is something endearing about his teenage scientist who sticks a drill in his brain to stimulate himself. In fact, Lorinz is part of the reason to watch this film. He's not a particularly gifted actor, but there's just something about him which makes him fit this role like a glove. For the most part, we are bombarded by bad computer effects, some cheap and tacky gore, lots of gratuitous nudity, pseudo-science and, in the film's most remembered scene, prostitutes literally exploding all over the place. Although this scene is patently unrealistic, at least you won't find it anywhere else.As for the horror content, there is little. An effective ending has the principle villain being eaten by a hideous 'something' in a slimy freezer, but that's about it as the rest of the film is played strictly for laughs. Henenlotter certainly makes the most of his low budget, and many of the special effects are ambitious, if not totally realistic. They all fit into the spirit of the thing, in any case. For fans of cheesy horror flicks, FRANKENHOOKER is definitely one of a kind.
Edward Rosenthal
I use this deliciously grotesque film as a sort of Rorschach test on friends to gauge their level of worthiness. Only those who relish Frankenhooker's deeply depraved lunacy, its sublimely sociopathic silliness are permitted entry into my exclusive inner circle. It's a cold, scary world out there and you gotta know who your real friends are - who's got your back, who you can count on when the sh*t goes down, who is just as delightfully demented as you are - and this maniacally warped chuckle machine is a fine instrument by which to measure someone's capacity for enlightened idiocy. That's a quality that is sorely lacking today, the ability and willingness of people to find amusement and even joy in the incorrectness of our natural selves; people foolishly refrain from laughing at the seemingly darker, foreboding, threatening aspects of reality. But not me.Sure, horror films are embraced by society for their ability to shock us out of our routine emotions, to startle us momentarily into an alternate experience of our otherwise mundane lives. But horror films are rarely if ever appreciated for their unique power to reveal the utter absurdity of so many of our culturally propagated habits. We all caress and coddle and fetishize our own personal fears, guarding and nurturing them like tender, vulnerable infants, vigilant to keep them concealed, away from the critical and denigrating gaze of others. Most people do not like to belittle or mock or taunt their deepest fears, but this film so blithely, so candidly, so radiantly rejoices in burlesquing terrors that we ordinarily conceal, deny, and rebuke. It's a luxury and a privilege to be allowed to wallow in the sordid, sour swamp of Frankenhooker's campy indifference to our petty, tedious concerns. This magically mental movie is a festive rejection of all of our ancient, tired, worn out notions of civility and decency and normalcy. Only a stark raving bore could not madly love Frankenhooker.
