Frankenhooker
![Watch film Frankenhooker — Frankenhooker (1990) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]](https://www.acmodasi.in/amdb/images/posters/1/7/frankenhooker-1990-yeJrD.jpg)
Short description
Jeffrey is a medical school dropout and electrical technician whose fiancée, Elizabeth, is killed in an accident with a lawnmower. Only her head survives. Determined to bring her back, Jeffrey sets out to build her a new body. He takes his experiments to the seedier side of the city, where he crosses paths with prostitutes he intends to use as a source of parts. His work draws on electricity and a drug of his own invention, and when Elizabeth returns she is not the woman he lost.
Frank Henenlotter directed and co-wrote the film with Robert Martin, and Edgar Ievins produced it. It followed Henenlotter's Basket Case and Brain Damage and preceded Basket Case 2, which was released the same year, and Bad Biology much later. James Lorinz plays Jeffrey, with Patty Mullen as Elizabeth and supporting turns from Joseph Gonzalez, Charlotte J. Helmkamp, Joanne Ritchie and J.J. Clark among a credited cast of 45. The film runs 85 minutes.
Made for about 3 million dollars, it was a modestly scaled production with an absurdist take on the Frankenstein story. Audiences rate it around 6.2 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 17,000 votes and 6.3 out of 10 on TMDB from about 400 votes, while critics give it 5.4 out of 10 across 17 reviews, so it lands somewhat lower with reviewers than with viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- Director and screenwriter Frank Henenlotter came up with the concept for the film on the fly during a meeting with studio executives. They liked the idea and offered him the chance to direct the movie. Only then did he begin writing the screenplay.
- The Frankensteins' garage is four times larger on the inside than one would imagine given its external dimensions.
- The brain that the main character, played by James Lorentz, experimented on is a replica of the brain from the promotional poster for Joseph Green's horror film 'The Brain That Wouldn't Die' (1962).
- At the beginning of the film, during a birthday party, Patty Mullen, who plays Elizabeth, used padding to look heavier. This was done intentionally to emphasize that she was larger before her death than after, when her body was composed of parts from other girls. The padding becomes noticeable when Elizabeth goes to show her father the lawnmower.
- There were many prop body parts on set—both flexible and rigid. At one point, the flexible props were stolen, so the laboratory scenes subsequently had to use rigid dummies, which looked unrealistic.
- Louisa Lesser, who played Jeffrey's mother, began filming after an illness, and as a result, she struggled to speak in the scene with James Lorenz, who played Jeffrey. Her lines had to be prompted. Her voice had become so hoarse that all of her character's lines had to be redubbed during post-production.
- During the filming of the movie's final shot, James Lorentz spent five hours tied to a chair and a mannequin.
- This was the first film by director and screenwriter Frank Henenlotter in which he employed actors who were members of the Screen Actors Guild. Henenlotter soon encountered problems because the actresses cast in the film refused to undress on camera. This resulted in Henenlotter going to the nearest strip club and selecting several dancers to appear in the movie. The contract detailed exactly to what extent each of them was required to undress. Subsequently, all of these women became members of the Screen Actors Guild.
- Director and screenwriter Frank Henenlotter had never been allocated such sums for filming before, yet he still faced a shortage of funds.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
