On Criterion, as part of their 90s Horror collection, I watched the classic 1990 B-movie Frankenhooker, about a med school dropout (James Lorinz) who brings back his dead fiancée (Patty Mullen), who had been killed in a lawnmower accident, using the body parts of sex workers he accidentally exploded with them smoking super enhanced crack. This was produced by Troma, so it’s definitely their style of sleaze, gore, and dark humor. It was goofy and silly to watch, with cheap effects like the actresses being replaced with obvious mannequins when they exploded, or the fiancée looking “fat” in the intro in an obviously padded body suit, only to look like her natural slim self when her body is pieced together from the other women.
The film was directed by Frank Henenlotter, known for directing Basket Case (and its sequel from this same year) and Brain Damage, so it’s great at having that mix of dark comedy and grime.
The only names I recognized were Louise Lasser, in one scene as the guy’s mom, and the 90s adult film star Heather Hunter as one of the sex workers.
Lorinz had this Jeffrey Combs vibe, with the nerdy mad scientist look, but had this snarky voice that reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t place who. I liked how he came off as funny without intending to, like being innocent and incidentally funny. And Mullen had been a Penthouse Pet in the 1980s, and only acted in a couple of movies. She was pretty funny and goofy, especially when she’s walking all stiff and can only speak dialogue that the other sex workers have said, so it’s a lot of “Want a date? Got any money?” doing a mouth twitch move, and complete repetition of out of context dialogue. She’s pretty good in this in a self aware, sex object kind of way.
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