Exploitation film lovers cherish the date 29 August 1950. It was the day Frank Henenlotter was born.
Henenlotter made Basket Case and its two sequels. The first film is absurd enough. But each subsequent one gets more absurd. And they are all excellent.
After the first film, he made the wonderful Brain Damage. According to Henenlotter, Basket Case fans did not like it at the time. But today, those few who see it tend to think it is one of his best.
He made Frankenhooker at the same time as Basket Case 2. I won’t say it is Henenlotter’s best film. But it is the one I rewatch the most. Most of the film features Franken by himself. Yet it just works.
Frank Henenlotter generally takes a lot of time between films. This may explain the consistent high quality of his work. Or it may be that it just takes that long to get financing. There was a 4-year period when he made four films. Otherwise, it was six years between Basket Case and Brain Damage. And then 17 years between Basket Case 3: The Progeny and Bad Biology — and seven more years before his last, Chasing Banksy. (I haven’t seen the last two films.)
After the Basket Case films, Henenlotter became involved with Something Weird Video. Fans probably know the company and that its name comes from the Herschell Gordon Lewis film. That’s the kind of guy Frank Henenlotter is. Our kind of guy! (Note: The Something Weird Video is currently just a “new site coming” page. Hopefully it survives.)
Since I never tire of it, here is a commercial-free version of Frankenhooker. Treat yourself to 84 minutes of fun!
Frank Henenlotter at Cinémathèque de Toulouse 2016 by YanRB under CC BY-SA 4.0.