A look at three directors part 2: Frank Henenlotter

Frank Henenlotter
He received his main film education in the grindhouses of 42nd street, watching double and triple bill of exploitation films; this has influenced his own style of film making, as he himself considers his own movies to be "exploitation" films, more so in their attitude and low-budget. His first full feature was the gory horror-comedy "Basket Case", a story of siamese twins who wreck vengeance on the doctors who separated them at birth. Complete with grimy cinematography in the style of  "Taxi Driver", this film managed to capture the seedy glory of 42nd Street prior to the "Disney-fication" in the early '90s, earning this film a special place in the hearts of many exploitation enthusiasts, that and it's tendency to suddenly switch to stop motion animation (the film had a really low budget).

Like most of his other work the film has developed a cult following and spawned two sequels (although they both veered more towards out-right comedy rather than the shocking mix of horror and comedy that makes the original a classic), and it pioneered his trademark of twisted ending that appear in all of his films, including the fantastically perverse twist at the end of his latest film "Bad Biology".

"Brain Damage" was his next assault on good taste, which is actually a metaphor for the dangers of drug addiction, the story concerns Brian who forms a relationship with Elmer, an Aylmer, who gives Brian wild hallucinations in return for human brain; the film explores the same seedy New York underbelly as "Basket Case", especially the with drawl scene, which also manages to preempt "Trainspotting" and actually manages to out-shock it in terms of cold-turkey hallucinations; the joy of this film comes from the creativity that comes across though out the entire film, from the trippy Elmer sequences that are juxtaposed with bloody brain-chomping deaths along with the overall design and pseudo-history of the Aylmer

Elmer the Aylmer

After Duane's cameo in "Brain Damage", Henelotter came back to everyone's favourite wicker basket carrying siamese twin with "Basket Case 2" featuring a whole host of new strange and unique characters. Although its shift from a bloody horror with comedy to a comedy with some horror sequences doesn't work as well, but there are a few sequences that do stand out, like the opening, the bar with the private investigator and the ending, which really does catch you off-guard.

 After the '80s, he only made two films in the '90s before going on 16 year long hiatus before making the outrageous "Bad Biology", those two films were "Frankenhooker" and "Basket Case 3", the former being the story of Jeffery Franken, who after his fiancee is killed by a lawn mower accident, goes about resurrecting her, his only draw back is he only has her head, his solution is (with the aid of explosive "super-crack") is to use parts of street-walkers. However, the film has been criticised for misogyny, as the protagonist rebuilds his girlfriend how he wants her to look, which ends up turning her in to an undead sex-object (the "WANNA DATE?" sequence), which quite rightly could be horribly offensive and could be taken as a case for this if taken out of context and not reviewing the final half as Henenlotter is in fact criticising this behavior and the protagonist is confronted with his own behavior (once his girlfriend has regained her own consciousness) as she questions him on why she has gone from the big, virginial girl from the prologue to an undead hooker. It all then balances out in the end as Franken gets killed by the prostitues' pimp, and is revived with the remaining hooker parts ("the serum could only revive women"), what goes around comes around.

It is a nice trashy black comedy with a very '80s asthetic and a spot on performance by James Lorinz as the demented Jeffery Franken; worth mentioning is the sutle touches, like the floating brain and the TV news that get some of the best laughs.

 Unfortunatly I havn't seen "Basket Case 3", although I have heard it's like "looney tunes with more blood" and has had poor reviews all round.

"Bad Biology" is his collaborative effort with R.A The Rugged Man, and was shot on a low budget but it still holds up with his earlier work; the film concerns two abnormal individuals, an experimental photographer and a reculse, who find one and other in this rather bizarre love story that takes body horror to strange levels.

Information taken from wikipedia and Hotel Broslin

Filmography:
-Basket Case (1982)
-Brain Damage (1988)
-Basket Case 2 (1990)
-Frankenhooker (1990)
-Basket Case 3: The Progeny (1992)
-Bad Biology (2008)
He also has been working on "That's Sexploitation" for Something Weird Video, along with releasing films with Something Weird as part of a speciality logo, "Frank Henenlotter's Sexy Shockers.