"I never felt that I made ‘horror films.’ I always felt that I made exploitation films. Exploitation films have an attitude more than anything – an attitude that you don’t find with mainstream Hollywood productions. They’re a little ruder, a little raunchier, they deal with material people don’t usually touch on, whether it’s sex or drugs or rock and roll."
~Frank Henenlotter
Born in New York City in 1950, Frank Henenlotter came of age at just the right time in just the right place tobecome an exploitation legend.As 42nd Street transformed from the candy-colored Broadway lights of his childhood to the sleazy, crime-riddled place of legend in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He spent his teenage years sneaking into peep shows and grindhouse theaters, before moving on to study graphic design and commercial art in his 20s. His love of film was instilled at a young age, however, with a young Henenlotter cutting his teeth shooting 8mm and 16mm short films in the 70s. One of them, Slash of the Knife, was screened alongside John Waters' Pink Flamingos in oneof those aforementioned42nd Street theaters.
Henenlotter's films are rife with, as he mentions in that quote above, things that mainstream Hollywood will never embrace. He's an auteur in the truest sense of the word, writing and directing each of his six narrative features and also serving as the editor on half of them.Henenlotter is also, arguably, the most competent of the low-budget New York City-based exploitation directors, though an argument could be made for Abel Ferrara as well. Henenlotter is definitely far more nuanced a director than his NYC horror-exploitation peers like Lloyd Kaufman, William Lustig, or Larry Cohen—who, spoiler, we'll be covering in two weeks!
Henenlotter's feature directorial career is confined to a very narrow window of time, as he made five films from 1982-1991, then took at 17 year hiatus before directing one final narrative feature in 2008. While he spent some of those 17 years trying and failing to get films off the ground, notably a collaboration with rapper R.A. "The Rugged Man" Thorburn that Henenlotter abandoned because the studio wanted him to make a torture porn film, which were all the rage in the mid-aughts. Henenlotter also became heavily involved in the work of finding and restoring classic exploitation films, working with specialty house Something Weird Video and distributing these titles under the "Frank Henenlotter's Sexy Shockers From The Underground" label.
Henenlotter is one of the only directors to have nudity in every single one of his fictional narrative features. Granted there's only six of them, but each one unique and worthy of discussion and dissection. Where else to begin but at the beginning with...
Basket Case (1982)
This touching tale of a small town boy trying to make it in New York City with nothing in tow but a dream and his sentient blob of a formerly-conjoined twin brother with a thirst for vengeance against the doctors who separated them, and who lives in a wicker basket his twin brother carries around with him. A feature film debut quite unlike any other, 1982's Basket Case announced Henenlotter as an interesting new voice in the world of low budget exploitation cinema. The film was shot on 16mm but the lab botched the processing, leaving Henenlotter with a film that was essentially in the 4:3 aspect ratio popular on televisions at the time.
This turned out to be a ratherhappy accidentsince the film was mostly seen on home video or cable, so the audience wasn't missing any crucial bits of cinematic composition that were lopped off to fit the television screen. It just feels right for this story about Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck) and his twin brother Belial (pronounced Buh-Lyle) who come from a small Upstate New York town to New York City to track down the doctors who separated them at birth and get revenge. Duane, however, ends up falling for busty and beautiful blonde nurse Sharon (Terri Susan Smith), distracting him from the task at hand and sending Belial into a blind rage.
While Sharon sleeps one night, Belial attempts to assault her but when he becomes even more enraged by his inability to assault her, he murders her instead...
Duane, now full of that same righteous anger his brother felt toward the doctors, attacks his brother and leaps out the window of their cheap motel with him in an attempt to kill them both. The film played the midnight circuit for years before becoming a cult classic on home video. Critics were mostly receptive to the film at the time as well, recognizing it for being a cut above the typical exploitation fare thanks to the enormous amount of pathos Henenlotter and team put in to developing the characters of Duane and Belial. It's really no wonder the film eventually became successful, even though it took Henenlotter six years to mount his next project...
Brain Damage (1988)
Henenlotter's follow-up film takes the whole notion of a parasitic life form to new heights! Brain Damage concernsNYC slacker Brian (Rick Hearst) coming into contact with an enormous leech-like parasite named Aylmer (pronounced Elmer) who can attach itself to Brian's brain stem to inject him with a powerful hallucinogenic drug. In order to keep Aylmer from completely feeding off his brain, however, Brian must find victims to keep his hunger at bay. This riff on Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors is pretty much the sort of thing Corman would have made had he had the idea in the late 80s instead of the early 60s.
Where Aylmer is concerned, all roads lead to Brian's destruction, a theme called into even sharper focus when a gun-toting couple come demanding Aylmer be returned to them. You see, they were his previous host family and they've gone into serious withdrawal without Aylmer around to provide their hallucinogenic fix. It's insane stuff, with that insanity extending itself into the film's nude scene! Brian has sex with his girlfriend Barbara (Jennifer Lowry) while Aylmer is attached to him, causing some purple spores to appear on Brian's chest during sex...
Virtually ignored by audiences and critics upon its initial release, the film eventually found its audience through those same home video and cable channels that brought Basket Case its cult audience. Speaking of which...
Basket Case 2 (1990)
Since the ending of 1982's Basket Case was theoretically open-ended enough to merit a sequel—I mean, we didn't see them dead after the fall out the window—it made sense that Henenlotter would return to the well, so to speak, for his third feature. Basket Case 2 opens with Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck) and his twin-brother Belialbeing taken from the hospital by a kindly older woman named Granny Ruth (Annie Ross) who runs a home for deformed individuals. The increased tabloid exposure to the brothers' case leads to a mob ofbad press for Granny Ruth that endangers her entire community of different folks.
The film obviously owes a huge debt to Tod Browning's incredible 1932 film Freaks, and in terms of cinematic literacy, this may be the best film of the trilogy. It's definitely steeped in and rife with homages to classic horror and exploitation films, and its third act "freaks rise up" showdown is among the best things low-budget horror/exploitation cinema has ever produced. Ifthere's any complaint to be made about the film, it's that it has the least amount of skin of any of Henenlotter's film. We get a brief topless scene from soap actress Heather Rattray, whose breasts can be seen after a hook-up attempt with Duane is nixed...
Duane attempts, in the film's final act, to rejoin himself with Belial—who has found himself a lady of his own named Eve—but this severs their psychic connection. Thisrather darkbit of business is undone by the next film, but that flick manages to wrap the trilogy up in an even more satisfactory way.
Frankenhooker (1990)
One of Henenlotter's most famous films is this ribald take on the Frankenstein tale updated to late 80s New Jersey. Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz), a former med student who got kicked out of school for attempting to reanimate dead tissue, is distraught over the loss of his beautiful fiancée Elizabeth (Patty Mullen) in a lawnmower accident. In his grief, Jeffrey decides he can bring Elizabeth back to life by replacing whatever body parts got shredded by the lawnmower with body parts of local crack-addicted prostitutes, whom he will kill using exploding crack rocks.
Jeffrey decides to throw a party for some prostitutes—Heather Hunter, Vicki Darnell, Jennifer Delora, Gittan Goding, Susan Napoli—he has brought back to a motel. After taking thorough measurements of each girl, he finds himself overwhelmed with guilt anddecides he can't bring himself to kill any of them...
However, the crafty ladies find his stash of exploding crack rocks and when they start smoking, kaboom. Jeffrey gets the parts he needs to build Elizabeth back to life, though he is now on the radar of the girls' pimp Zorro, who is hot on his tail. After bringing Elizabeth back to life, however, he finds that her entire personality is more in line with the prostitutes than the woman he used to love. Before long, the call of the hook brings her back to the street cornerwith a newfound strength...
Patty Mullen is terrific in the title role and the film, overall, is just among the most fun takes on the mad scientist genre since Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator! If you're a fan of that level of over-the-top insanity, this is the Halloween watch you've been looking for!
Basket Case 3: The Progeny (1991)
Kevin Van Hentenryck returns for one last go-around as Duane, this time having been once more re-separated from his twin Belial and "institutionalized" in Granny Ruth's Home for Unique Deformed Individuals. Meanwhile, Belial's lady friend Eve is set to give birth to baby blobs and Duane is allowed to go to the event, so long as he doesn't communicate telepathically with his brother. An elaborateescape plot then gets set in motion that involves a sheriff, his randy daughter, and apair of inept deputies that accidentally murder Eve, thinking he's Belial, after she gives birth to 12 babies. The deputies kidnap the babies,sending Belial on a rescue and revenge mission against the men responsible for his wife's death!
The film's nude scene is also a cheeky shout-out to the franchise's obsession with twins. During the birth of his children, Belial is drugged because he attacks the surgeon, and in his fantasy, he is doted on by topless twins Carla and Carmen Morrell, who recite Shakespeare's 18th sonnet while on a rotating bed with Belial. The sexy twins also pop back up during the end credits, smoking a cigarette after their encounter with Belial...
Though it technically got a minuscule theatrical release in October 1991, it wasn't seen by most folks until it hit home video the following year, also the franchise's tenth anniversary. It would also be Henenlotter's last film for nearly two decades, though he came roaring back when he was finally ready!
Bad Biology (2008)
Born out of that failed collaboration with rapperR.A. "The Rugged Man" Thorburn, Henenlotter's return to the director's chair was co-written and completely financed by Thorburn, giving Henenlotter the most creative freedom he had enjoyed in decades. The story centers around Jennifer (Charlee Danielson), a woman with seven clitorises who can conceive a child in under three hours.Her sexualsadomasochistic tendenciesare so strong that she refuses to use contraceptives, enjoying the sensation of giving birth, though she ultimately abandons the children she births. Think Cronenberg's The Brood, only with a much more neglectful mother.
Jennifer has only one wish in life, to be "fucked by God," and attain ultimate awareness as a human, so she bangs basically every man she can. However, shesoon meets her sexual equal in Batz (Anthony Sneed), a man whose penis gained sentience after he injected it with growth hormones, causing it to grow nearly two feet long! Batz's ability to bring a prostitute (Vicky Wiese) to multiple orgasms that continued for 45-minutes after sex is a major turn-on for Jennifer, making them a match made in deformed genital hell...
Needless to say, this pair is among the more dysfunctional ever put on screen and Henenlotter has a ton of fun exploring the many unsightly aspects of their relationship.Former Playboy and PenthousemodelJelena Jensen is at the center of the film's craziest nude scene and one of the most insane of Henenlotter's career! Batz can't keep his monstrous 24 inch dickattached any longer, causing it to separate from him and have sex with women all over the city, including Jelena...
It's virtually impossible to see a scene like that and think that the 17-year filmmaking hiatus did anything to soften him. Henenlotter is still going strong, making documentary films and working with specialty house Something Weird Video as an ambassador for the restorationof exploitation and grindhouse cinema. His filmography, though small, is a treasure trove of exploitation delights that will delight fans of the weird and off-beat for generations to come.
Check out the Other Directors in Our Ongoing "SKIN-depth Look”Series
Mario Bava |Stuart Gordon|Tony Scott|Bruce Lee|Terry Gilliam|Alejandro Jodorowsky|Luis Buñuel|Atom Egoyan|John Boorman|John Schlesinger|James Ivory|Alan Parker|Walter Hill|Louis Malle|Mike Nichols|Allison Anders|Jonathan Demme|William Friedkin|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part One|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part Two|Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Part Three|Federico Fellini|Philip Kaufman|Miloš Forman|Pedro Almodóvar: Part One|Pedro Almodóvar: Part Two|Blake Edwards|Catherine Breillat: Part One|Catherine Breillat: Part Two|Spike Lee|John Landis|David Cronenberg: Part One|David Cronenberg: Part Two|Ingmar Bergman|François Truffaut|Bernardo Bertolucci|Steven Soderbergh|Kathryn Bigelow|Oliver Stone|Roman Polanski|Nicolas Roeg|David Fincher|Francis Ford Coppola|Pier Paolo Pasolini|Ken Russell: Part One|Ken Russell: Part Two|Robert Altman:Part One|Robert Altman:Part Two|Adrian Lyne|Martin Scorsese|Jane Campion|Park Chan-wook|Bob Fosse|Dario Argento|Wes Craven|Tobe Hooper|Todd Haynes|Danny Boyle|Stanley Kubrick|Paul Thomas Anderson|David Lynch|Brian De Palma|Paul Schrader|Paul Verhoeven
Check Out the Other Franchises in Our "SKIN-depth Look" Series
—The Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise
—The Friday the 13th Franchise
—National Lampoon's Theatrical Features
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