If anyone in the1980s could be called the king of weird horror movies, it would beFrank Henenlotter. There are plenty of other minds whose names could be up for the title, directors likeSam RaimiandStuart Gordon, but those figures don’t quite reach the oddball mold that Henenlotter shaped for himself.
Even to this day, Frank Henenlotter’s brand is unmatched. His films are like walking down the seediest alley in New York City, digging deep into the deepest, smelliest, wettest trashcan possible, and deciding that trashcan is your new home. Here, you’ll probably see sometruly deranged occurrences, but you’ll probably also see some stuff that makes you laugh really hard and question your own mental state. While watching Frank Henenlotter’s films, it feels as though you are about as far off into a particular corner of cinema history as possible. Between the obscure cult classicsBasket CaseandBrain Damagealone, Frank Henenlotter deserves the top spot as the weirdest horror director of the 1980s.
Frank Henenlotter was born on August 29th, 1950 in New York City, New York - a native of the city that he loves to make look deplorable on screen. It didn’t take long for him to become a fan of genre films likeValley of the Zombies,The Wolf Man, andThe Tingler, all films that he has specifically cited as making an impression upon him as a child. After making films on 8mm throughout his teenage years, eventually Henenlotter graduated to making his first 16mm short filmSlash of the Knifein 1972. This film was inspired by the exploitation films that he caught in New York City’s underground and grindhouse cinemas. From the beginning, Henenlotter was making movies that aimed to shock, and as the 1980s came along, he cracked the code on making the ultimate freakout films.
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Frank Henenlotter’s Debut Film Was a Love Letter to Sleazy NYC
In 1982, Frank Henenlotter’s debutBasket Casewas unleashed upon the world. Inspired by the “seedy, wonderful atmosphere” of Times Square,Basket Caseshowcases everything that its filmmaker would come to be known for. The film follows Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck), a man who carries around his deformed conjoined twin brother, Belial, in a large basket throughout the streets of New York City, with the two aiming to exact their revenge upon the doctors that separated them.
It’s a movie that feels like a love letter to everything that Henenlotter finds sleazy about his hometown. The streets are covered in trash, everyone looks like they need to take a shower, and every interior is absolutely disgusting - all of which are shot on a gloriously grainy 16mm film stock. The film was made for cheap with a budget of about $35,000, so all the special effects have a wonderful backyard movie quality to them. Belial, in particular, always lookslike a puppet, but has such a disturbing and unique design to him, as well as odd jerky movements and an unsettling voice, that he ends up feeling kind of real.
At times,Basket Casecan feel a bit like a deranged comedy, but most of the time, it honestly feels like a really messed up documentary that was lost to time about the weirdest pair of individuals in New York City. There are long portions of the film where the camera just follows Duane around the city, carrying this enormous wicker basket. Little is said in these moments, we’re just supposed to wonder, along with everyone around him, what’s inside the basket? While he would go on to make mostly horror comedies from here on out, this film remains Henenlotter’s scariest work. The sequels turned everything super goofy, but here, Belial is a deafeningly loud and aggressive little guy. His presence makes the film hard to watch, but only in the way that the most effective horror movies are.Basket Caseis a great little foray into discomfort and is Henenlotter’s definitive work.
Frank Henenlotter’s Best Film
Frank Henenlotter’s sophomore feature,Brain Damage, might not be his definitive work, but it could be his magnum opus. It’s the story of Brian (Rick Hearst), a man who obtains a talking parasite named Aylmer (voiced byJohn Zacherle), one that provides him psychedelic hallucinations at the cost of other victims for it to feed upon. This film is definitely Henenlotter branching further into outright comedic territory.Brain Damagecan be unnerving and is a pretty gross film, but Aylmer is such a funny and polite little guy that, like the main character Brian, you forget about the fact that he’s an evil parasite.
The movie is clearly about addiction and the lengths that people go to to feed their addictions, but it does not carry its themes with much weight. The film juggles between being gory, psychedelic, and funny, all through a very comic book-ish lens, so it’s not like you’re watchingRequiem for a Dream. Like the rest of his work,Brain Damagetakes place in a total filth pit of a universe, so if you like the vibe thatBasket Caseprovides, this is going to be a perfect fit for you. While similar to his previous film, Henenlotter does prove himself to be capable of some pretty interesting imagery with Brian’s hallucinations. These scenes provide a nice contrast with their kaleidoscopic, warped visuals.
Decades Change, Frank Henenlotter’s Weird Horror Remains
Even though Frank Henenlotter only released two features in the 1980s, having two movies under your belt as bizarre asBasket CaseandBrain Damagewould definitely be enough to crown somebody as their decade’s king of weird horror. In the 1990s, he would go on to direct twoBasket Casesequels,Basket Case 2andBasket Case 3: The Progeny, as well asFrankenhooker. This 1990Frankensteinparody in particular is so outlandish that, while it does technically fall into the “horror” genre, it’s absolutely Henenlotter’s biggest foray into comedy. It’s the story of Jeffrey (James Lorinz), a man on the mission to revive his dead fiancée, using the body parts of dead Manhattan sex-workers.
Frankenhookerfeels more like the most disgusting, rated-R episode ofRen and Stimpythan it does a horror movie. The end result is very funny, no doubt about it, but a Frank Henenlotter project has never felt this nauseating.Basket Caseis his definitive work,Brain Damageis his magnum opus, andFrankenhookeris his furthest reach into exploitation. It’s got graphic violence, nudity, an unlikeable lead, deplorable supporting characters, the locations are seedy, you get the idea - it’s a nasty, bad-vibe movie. Since then, he has worked as a film historian, worked on a couple of documentaries, and directed the 2008 horror-comedyBad Biology.
If you’re ever in the mood to watch something that’ll make you both laugh and disturbed, Frank Henenlotter is your guy. His filmography is all-killer-no-filler, fantasticmidnight movies, one after the next. They almost act as bizarre love letters to his hometown, a place that he seems to have come across the weirdest sights that one might imagine. His consistent knack for delivering bizarre plot synopses, gross out gags, unique creatures, and uncomfortable atmospheres, while always doing so on a low budget, gives him one of the more reliable and fun filmographies of any other horror filmmaker of his era (if you can stomach his shtick). Frank Henenlotter rocks, and he’ll always stand as the king of 1980s weird horror cinema.
