Review: Dead Hooker In A Trunk

A few weeks ago I had a chance to see a movie that had been on My "to watch" list, Dead Hooker In A Trunk.  Yes, for those of you who have not heard of this film it probably sounds like it should be paired up as a grindhouse double feature with Hobo With A Shotgun, and yeah in all reality it probably should.  This is the vision and debut film of Jen and Sylvia Soska, a pair of twins from Canada who are crafty, creative, sexy and definately twisted, as their Twisted Twins production company with a logo that is a pair of small "t's" which look like gravestones would imply.

Now I love independent films. even the really bad ones and especially off the wall ones.  For those unaware before Peter Jackson began putting out Lord Of The Rings, and Sami Rami began making Spider-Man films that they had both churned out outrageous splatterfest like Brain Dead, Bad Taste and the Evil Dead Trilogy.  So if Dead Hooker In A Trunk seems a little off the wall, wild and wierd, remember that some of the biggest names in movies started out the same way.

I have seen some people complain that the plot seemed jumbled, that the sound and camera work was shoddy, and that the situations are pretty unbelievable, as well as the fact that none of the characters really seem to have any names.  However, if you love the indies that won't bother you at all, because such things are standard fare.

Given the basics: A pair of sisters, played by the Soska's themeselves, (one a bad-ass and the other one a geek), head out with their band member druggie female friend to pick up Geek Sister's youth church group leader friend.  Bad-Ass Sister catches the eye of the Youth Minister at the church, a small event that becomes more important later in the film.

Well it isn't too long before the foursome discover that there's an extra occupant in the car, the titular Dead Hooker in the trunk, a local prostitute that Bad-Ass Sister and Druggie Friend know from the club they hang out at.  From there it's surreal situation after surreal situation.  They check into a motel where a creepy night clerk hugged up with a goat lets them have a room after Geek Sister convinces him that their friend (the Dead Hooker) thinks he's hot and wants to have sex with him.  Oh, yeah, a little unintentional necrophillia.  Later on a pair of bumbling cops track Bad-Ass Sister down, only to be tricked into being stripped and put into a compromising position with each other, and of course to be later found by Pervert Motel Clerk.

Later on they go by Druggie Friend's boyfriend's so she can fight with him and then have make-up sex.  However it seems that the Cowboy Pimp watching the door is in cahoots with some Asian Drug Dealers that Boyfriend owes money to.  Boyfriend is killed and Druggie nearly has her arm severed before Bad-Ass takes out the whole Asian Trio in an over the top fight and gun scene set to a little J-Pop.  Meanwhile someone whacks Geek Sister in the head as she is waiting outside of the car causing her eye to fly out of her head.

Well, the group regroups momentarily, Geek fixing her eye with an X of black tape, while the others argue on the street.  As Druggie throws her wounded arn out in frustration it is taken the rest of the way off by a passing semi, and believe it or not Druggie stays on her feet for the entire scene.  Getting more in to unbelievable territory?  Well it is an independent film, and I think the Soskas showed a lot of guts by not trying to make some of the action real or even serious.

After regrouping again the foursome heads to the woods, where Youth Group Leader sews Druggie's arm back on, and it works as good as new.  After some pot smoking and talking the group decides to bury Dead Hooker.  Just as Bad-Ass is about to shovel the first shovel full of dirt on top of her following a eulogy by Youth Group Leader, Dead Hooker sits up.  Bad-Ass whacks her full force with the shovel and comments it must be nerves, before continuing to bury Dead Hooker.

Cowboy Pimp returns, complete with horse, demanding that the group give him back his hooker.  He ropes Bad-Ass and drags her behind the horse, before she shoots the rope, then engages in another little fight scene.  After she kills Cowboy Pimp comes one of the funniest moments of the film as Youth Group Leader goes off and cusses out the body.  I don't think that the term "Ass Rape" has been used as effectively in a film until now.

Well feeling everything is over the group head back to town and go their seperate ways, Druggie Friend to the hospital because her arm has fallen off again.  Eventually they are all drawn to the house where Dead Hooker lived to discover that she had a dog and that she was afraid of a Hooker Killer who was mentioned in the news paper in her house.  There is a police sketch of the killer in the paper, and as the group exits Dead Hooker's house they see him walking down the street, and know they have to bring him to justice.

What happens next is a surreal and violent scene.  Hooker Killler awakes to find himself tied to a chair in Dead Hooker's house.  He looks down to see that there is a bowl between his feet that already contains his severed penis, which the dog begins to eat.  He starts screaming for help and protesting his innocence once the sisters tell him that they know he is the Hooker Killer.  What follows is a scene of tortue with household objects as the two sisters take turns mutilating Hooker Killer.

Jen and Sylvia Soska.  Twisted Twins?  For sure!

You may think that's it, but in great indy horror fashion there's a bizzare twist.  It turns out that Hooker Killer is Youth Minister's twin brother, and that Youth Minister is actually Hooker Killer.  The reason he kills women are that they make fun of his penis, which is forked due to being circumsized by a drunken rabbi at his bris.  The Dead Hooker in the trunk was his way of getting Bad-Ass's attention, having picked her out as a target the same night as his encounter with Dead Hooker.  Bad-Ass's sister and their friends fight off Youth Minister/Hooker Killer's gang, and rescue her from Hooker Killer's lair full of dead women.

Now despite its many twist and flaws, and sometimes complete absence of traditional logic I give Dead Hooker In A Trunk Five Stars.  It is a hell of a lot better than Rob Zombie's House Of 1,000 Corpses, which I'm still wishing to get the two hours of My life I lost watching it back.  The Soska sisters have talent, and like those other famous directors I mentioned before them it's easy to see that Dead Hooker In A Trunk is only the tip of their creative iceburg.

If you're a stick in the mud who wants every frame of a movie to look slick, sound crystal clear and make perfect sense, you'll hate it.  There's a fair amout of gore in the places it needs to be, while in some places I'm sure it's either sublte or only implied due to the budget they had to work with.  The lines of humor thrown in are gold, including an early scene where Bad-Ass Sister pulls a strand of huge anal beads off Dead Hooker's body and comments, "I think these are mine", the Youth Group Leader's NC-17 Rated rant, and of course Bad-Ass's response to Geek saying that she though she was dead with, "As if death could kill me."  Plus I have to mention that Dead Hooker In A Trunk features a cameo by the most cheesy fake penis since The Gore Whore.

If you like off the wall films like Bad Taste and Pink Flamingos then Dead Hooker In A Trunk is right up your alley.  It's one of those movies you have to see to appericiate, but in My opinion it doesn't fall into that "so bad" it has to be seen to be appericiated films category, becuase in the end for all its cheesiness and lack of logic Dead Hooker In A Trunk is a great film.  In fact I even told the Soskas if I was ever in an accident and lost a limb I hoped it happened in Canada, where it appears they're doing miricales with reattachments.

Master Vyle