Frankenhooker

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
1990

Frankenhooker
Frank Henenlotter
USA, 1990 90 minutes
Colour/35mm
Production Company: levins/Henenlotter
Executive Producer: James Glickenhaus
Producer: Edgar levins
Screenplay: Robert Martin and Frank Henenlotter
Cinematography: Robert M. Baldwin
Editor: Kevin Tent
Special Makeup Effects: Gabe Bartalos
Music: Joe Renzetti
Principal Cast: James Lorinz, Patty Mullen, Charlotte Helmkamp, Louise Lasser

You might call Frank Henenlotter a visionary. He creates horror movies that appropriate the classic themes of the genre, and then twists these icons in bizarre, brilliantly demented ways. He also has developed a deserved reputation for exploring contemporary urban issues on screen, especially drug use/abuse and its systemic effects. This time, Henenlotter has turned his incisive eye to the Frankenstein story. We meet Jeffrey Franken, a shy guy from New Jersey with a problem: his fiancée, Elizabeth, has just been turned into diced carrots by the automatic lawnmower that he created himself. Riddled with grief and unable to accept the comforting words of his mother (played by Louise Lasser), Jeffrey devises a way to re-create Elizabeth using her preserved head and a collection of body parts from Times Square hookers (who smoked a little too much “explosive” crack.) But something goes dreadfully awry with the procedure: Jeffrey’s creation bursts out of his home, and goes stalking the Manhattan streets in search of tricks. Frankenhooker fills her unfortunate johns with high-voltage, electric love: a lethal dose of burning passion. Our hero courageously scoops her off the street and fixes her brain … or does he? A larger budget than usual allows Henenlotter to experiment with bizarre makeup and special effects, but it is Henenlotter’s hyperactive, camp sensibility and social relevance that make this film more than just another pretty face.
—Noah Cowan