Frankenhooker (1990)

Back in April on episode 156 of the podcast, we had Freddie Young from Full Moon Reviews on to discuss this horror classic. I'd been meaning to get more horror on both the site and pod, and also been meaning to get more of Frank Henenlotter's stuff on, so that worked out on both scores. It was also great to get his take on how New York City has changed since this film was released. In addition to us, Freddie covered this on his site, Full Moon Reviews, as well.

Frankenhooker is about a guy named Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) from New Jersey whose fiancee Elizabeth (Patty Mullen) is chopped apart in a horrific lawnmower accident. Unable to move on, he tries to piece her back together, and then develops a process to bring her back to life. Unfortunately, they couldn't find all of her body parts, so he needs to get some new ones. Who better than some ladies of the night plying their trade in Times Square? After he accidentally kills a bunch of them with some explosive crack, he takes the spare parts back to his lab to reanimate his fiancee--but when he does, will he like the results?

This is the classic you expect it to be, it hits all the right notes. It has the late 80s/early 90s feel you want; the goofy, sick, twisted humor from a horror comedy that is equal parts macabre and hilarious; but then also this novel concept that works even considering how crazy it is. I loved the scene after the fiancee's death, when Jeffrey is watching the news and a reporter is interviewing a police detective who's describing the process of trying to find all her body parts as "she's just one big jigsaw puzzle." As the name implies, this is also an homage to Frankenstein, and Henenlotter does a great job with that as well, mixing what was then a modern 1990's setting with the schlock horror films of the 50s and 60s that he grew up with. One of the best scenes is when he reanimates Elizabeth, the mix of animation and practical effects, it looks great, but also doesn't betray the camp and humor this is going for. This one is a classic for a reason, and well worth the watch.

It's been awhile since I've seen Basket Case or Brain Damage, but I think out of the three, I like this one best. The budget was a little bigger, Henenlotter was more experienced as a director, and the concept was more novel and interesting--and was executed better, which always helps. As much of a classic as this is though, and as big a name as Henenlotter has in the horror world, he doesn't have many other feature film credits to his name. Just this, Brain Damage, three Basket Case movies, and in 2008 a film called Bad Biology. Since then he's done a few documentaries, the last one coming in 2018, and that's it. The good news is though, all of his feature films are available on free streamers, with everything but Bad Biology on Tubi, and that one on Plex.

We always talk about New York City being its own character in a film, and Henelotter was one of the best to use the city that way. What's interesting is just how much it's changed since 1990 when this was made. Times Square is not a place where people can engage sex workers, it's tourist trap where you can get pictures with Marvel characters and have lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. or Olive Garden. When Franken asks a guy where his fiancee ran off to, and the guy responds in Swedish, he says "You're speaking to me in Swedish in Times Square!", because back then the idea of tourists going to Times Square was unfathomable. For me, I never saw that earlier incarnation, my first trip to Times Square was in 2014 when my wife and I had a layover at Penn Station between trains, and she took me there so I could see it. That's one thing that was great about having Fred on the pod to discuss this, he's a lifelong resident of NYC, so he's seen the changes and could speak to it better. Maybe that's why Henenlotter doesn't make movies anymore, New York is no longer the New York he knew--though I would love to see a sequel to this where Elizabeth is in Times Square interacting with tourists in jorts and fanny packs.

This was a Troma release, so we have the Troma opening, which is one of the best for me. Ty from Comeuppance and I were talking about this, how there aren't as many iconic low-budget releasing and production company openings as there used to be. Cannon, PM, Vestron, Imperial--I could go on, but like Troma, they give you a comfort food feeling that gets you in the right frame of mind before you start your film, as opposed to the current DTV climate where you may have anywhere from 6-8 companies before the film starts, all as indistinguishable from the one before it, engendering a sense of cynicism that puts you in the wrong frame of mind and makes the film work uphill before it even starts. The other thing about Troma is they've been a victim of the changing New York we were talking about in the previous paragraph, priced out of Hell's Kitchen and forced to move to Long Island City in Queens. When I started the site, I expected to have more Troma, but with the way the action reviews blew up, Troma was left behind, and now we're 1250-plus posts in and this is only their 12th tag. I always say "we'll have to work on fixing that," but I never seem to get around to it, so I'll leave at as Troma is one of the all-time greats, and the DTV and low budget film world wouldn't be what it is without them.

Finally, in the opening scene, before Elizabeth is cut up by the lawnmower, Elizabeth, Jeffrey, and her mother are in the house, when her mother says "I need to make my cole slaw." It was a reminder of how much things have changed since this came out, when my initial thought was "she's going to dump a bunch of pre-cut ingredients from a bag into a bowl," and instead saw her pull out a big head of cabbage and start cutting. Yes Matt, at one time--and within your lifetime--that's how cole slaw was made, it wasn't bought pre-cut at the grocery store. The thing is though, I love the pre-cut stuff. I guess the kids would call it a "hack," but I saute it with my onions, mushrooms, and tofu when I'm making fried rice. Mix in some soy sauce and rice vinegar, and it's perfect. 

With that, I think it's time to wrap this up. You can currently get this on Tubi, which I think is a great way to watch it--though if you're a collector and you don't have this, it's one you should add. This is the fun horror classic romp you came for, great for a bad movie night with friends. And if you haven't yet, you can check out the podcast episode I did with Fred from Full Moon Reviews, number 156 in the archives.

And my newest novel, Don's House in the Mountains, is available now on Amazon! Click the image to buy.

Basket Case (1982)

I'd been meaning to make this one happen for a long time, and I'm not sure what has kept me from it. This was a video store classic, that gross, cult, 80s horror flick with tons of blood and gore, and some stop-animation that left a little to be desired-- but we thought it was great for that reason. They don't make 'em like this anymore for one reason or another, and that's too bad.

Basket Case follows a kid named Duane from upstate as he makes his way in the big, scary, New York City. He looks like a poor man's Marc Bolan, and he carries a wad of cash and a large wicker basket around with him everywhere. What is in there? And what is he doing in the city?



As I mentioned above, this is vintage. It starts off with a guy in a remote house, yelling into a phone and screaming for his life. It's more like a guy who's pissed that someone is bothering him or egging his house than someone afraid for his life. From there's he's brutally dispatched by a rubbery gloved demon-like hand. And the movie just spends the next hour and twenty minutes living up that promising start. So few horror movies can deliver what they're selling, but Basket Case does. This is great 80s low-budget horror that is exactly what you're looking for.

I'm tired of being told that movies like Hatchet II are somehow saving the horror genre, or giving me the kind of horror I knew and loved from the 80s, because they aren't. I'm going to let you know how many minutes of Basket Case were wasted with bad conversations about the names Chad and Cleetus: zero. I'm going to tell you how much of the film was wasted with bad jokes that went on too long: zero. I'm going to tell you how much of this film felt forced, or overly indulgent, or like it was trying to hard to sell me something it wasn't: none of it. To put it in terms the kids can understand: Basket Case greater than Hatchet II.



On the other hand, before I get too carried away with 80s are better than '10s, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the bad stop animation, which was hilarious. There's a scene where the Basket Case guy flips out and destroys Duane's room. It was like a bad Herbie Hancock video. I know, I spend a lot of time on here saying that I'd rather see stop animation or other effects instead of CGIs, but a big reason for that is that I think directors get lazy with CGIs; here, we were looking at an instance where CGIs-- or maybe a bigger budget-- would've made the scene look better. Of course, it could've been made to look bad on purpose too, and in that case, it totally worked.

That brings me to a confession: when I first saw this, when I was like 8 or 9, I thought it sucked. In fact, I thought a lot of these schlock horror flicks sucked. If it didn't have Freddy or Jason or Michael Myers, chances are me and my little buddies would've thought it sucked. Okay, we also liked Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It wasn't until I was in high school that I really got into great ones like these, when films like Evil Dead and Bad Taste had taught me to not be so mainstream/big budget in my horror tastes-- not that I don't still love the Jason and Freddy flicks too.



I think I brought this up in the 1990 Bronx Warriors post, but I think it's worth mentioning again (plus, who knows how many of you actually read that one considering I wrote it over two years ago). I love these old shots of what Times Square looked like pre-Bubba Gump's Shrimp themed restaurant and whatnot. I've never been to Times Square period, but when you compare these images with the ones today outside TV shows and whatnot, you can see a lot more character in the former. This was the rough place that you could set a movie like this and make it work. What would it be today, the hero carrying his basket outside of the Today Show set? "Hey Al, I'm Duane from Glen Falls, New York!"

This is currently on Watch Instantly, which is where I made it happen for this review. As far as DVD vs. VHS, there's actually no benefit to getting this on DVD, no extras, a full screen port, so if you're a VHS nostaligist, you won't be missing anything by sticking with the VCR. Hopefully someday they'll give this the full treatment, commentary, deleted scenes, etc.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083624/

Brain Damage (1988)

In high school a friend who was rather new to watching bad movies thought the whole thing was a novel idea, and he planned some big MST3K-like night for us to rent a bunch and make fun of them. The rest of us didn't have the heart to tell him we'd been doing the same thing for years before that, so we just went along for it. I mean, how can you pass up a night of bad movies, right? Well, anyway, another buddy, who like me, was something of a bad movie pro, picked out Bad Taste that night, and the rest was history. It became our favorite movie.

The problem was, the friend who hosted us was jealous that my buddy garnered so many accolades for Bad Taste, that he felt he needed to one up him. It's pretty silly, I know. He rented and showed us this film in his futile attempt at one-upsmanship.

Brain Damage is about a dude, played by a soap opera actor, living in an apartment with his brother. One night he's accosted by a parasite named Aylmer. Aylmer needs to eat brains, and he has the ability to shoot Cool Mint Listerine into the soap star's brain stem, which makes him high and gives him Predator vision. While high, he brings Aylmer into contact with humans, so Aylmer can eat their brains. His life spirals downwards as he becomes addicted to the Listerine, and his girlfriend starts doing his brother. Then the old couple who originally had Aylmer come for him, because they're going through withdrawals. The whole thing ends with the soap star getting too much cool mint Listerine to the head, causing it to burst open in a flash of light, much like the Adam Bomb Garbage Pail Kid.



Needless to say, this was no Bad Taste, and that friend was slowly phased out of our bad movie watching sessions. Bad movie watching is about the camaraderie, not who can find the best flick. And when you try too hard to find the perfect bad film, you get Brain Damage, not Bad Taste. Like I always say, the key to finding a bad movie is to let the video store tell you what to buy; don't go in there expecting anything.

Watching Brain Damage many years later, I find that I was just put off by our friend's behavior, and in fact didn't give this thing a chance. It's actually not that bad. The Aylmer thing was pretty funny: he sounded kind of like Hanna-Barbera's Purple Hippo; I dug the Cool Mint Listerine everywhere: it made for great easy puns; and the scene where Aylmer jumps out of the soap star's fly to kill a potential fellator (is that a word? one who gives fellatio?) was memorbale to say the least. It wasn't anything great, but in a large group there was plenty to laugh at.



Difficult to handle was the withdrawal sequence. As the soap star tries to remove himself from Aylmer's grasp, he goes cold turkey from the Listerine injections in the brain stem.
They live in what looks like a gas station bathroom for who knows how long, with the soap star in a wife beater and tighty whities, all stained and gross. Who thought this was a good idea? Brain eating, ears falling off, all that I can handle. But sweaty soap stars in stained undergarments is beyond my sensibilities.

For fans of bad horror, there's an homage to Basket Case in a subway scene. That's just what I want in my bad horror, allusions to other ones. It's like going to the dentist, and while you're suffering through that, he or she reminds you of the last visit and how painful that was. I felt a shudder move through me as the memory passed in my head of Basket Case, and my friends saw this and asked if I was OK.



This isn't a bad deal if you've got a bunch of people over and want to rent something silly. We had a mixed group when we watched it recently, which included people who avoid movies like this like the plague. I found they were more laughing at the fact that we were watching it than actually enjoying the movie. It was like: "Those silly guys and gals, what're we gonna do with them?" For me that's a much better reaction than: "Eww, why do you guys watch stuff like this? That's disgusting, I'm out of here."

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094793/