Today's filmmaker for our female filmmaker series may be a nepo baby, but she directed one of the strangest and most controversial films of the 90s. Would you expect anything less from David Lynch's daughter? That's right. Today we are going to talk about the one and only Jennifer Lynch.
Jennifer is the daughter of David Lynch, but she mostly grew up with her mother after her parents divorced. She moved to Los Angeles after high school so that she could work with her dad and become closer to him. She began working on some of his projects and writing for Friday the 13th: The Series. In the early 90s, she wrote and directed her debut film which wound up causing quite a stir!
The plot behind 1993's Boxing Helena is rather insane. Essentially a weird surgeon becomes obsessed with his next-door neighbor played by Sherilyn Fenn. This surgeon, a mama's boy, lusts after her while banging other babes (who are just as gorgeous). He isn't satisfied. He wants Sherilyn who plays Helena.
He throws a big party in the hopes that she will arrive. She does...but she hooks up with another man at the party instead of the lonely surgeon. When she is leaving the party, she is hit by a car. The surgeon takes it upon himself to "heal" and he makes the rash decision to...amputate her legs.
Now Helena is trying to recover and deal with her new legless life. She taunts the surgeon who is essentially trying to trap her and make her dependent on him. When she fights back one day, he even cuts off her arms. Now she has no limbs and no hope to get away! That is until another man who was obsessively in love with her suddenly arrives to save Helena.
Man, she must be magic in the sack for guys to go this wild over her! Of course, based on looks alone I can see going above and beyond for Sherilynn. She's heavenly hot onscreen!
She isn't the only one. Nicolette Scorsese stars and has some really sultry sex scenes. No relation to the other famous Scorsese, by the way.
This film was not well-received. Audiences and critics were horrified (and confused). Jennifer did not see what the big deal was. She contended that if her father had directed the same film, no one would care. Honestly, I think she might be right!
Boxing Helena was nominated for several Razzies and Jennifer won the Best Director Razzie that year. It seemed like the young lady's career would be over before it began. Jennifer Lynch was more resilient than that.
Jennifer directed a few features after that which were better received such as Surveillance and Chained, but she did wait well over a decade to direct films again. She began to be rewarded for her work and her later films were much better received by critics and audiences alike. See? It wasn't the end for Jennifer Lynch!
In 2010, she directed the creature feature Hisss which is an Indian co-production starring mostly Indian actresses. This film heralded a return to nudity with her lead actress being nude as she transforms into a cobra and back to her hot human form.
She stopped directing feature films and became a go-to gal for directing TV episodes - the stranger or creepier the better! She has directed episodes of The Watcher, Gossip Girl, The Walking Dead, Wayward Pines,Quantico, Teen Wolf, and more.
In fact, she has become so good at directing weird TV that she directed most of the latest season of American Horror Story. Yes, that means she directed Kim Kardashian!
So what is next for Jennifer Lynch? She is likely to direct more TV episodes. I personally hope for her return to film - and to great nude scenes - in the near future!
