Frankenhooker – Synapse Films (4K UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1990
Director: Frank Henenlotter
Writer: Frank Henenlotter, Robert Martin
Cast: James Lorinz, Patty Mullen, Louise Lasser, Joseph Gonzalez, Joanne Ritchie, J.J. Clark

Release Date: October 13th, 2026
Approximate Running Time: 84 Minutes 13 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Stereo English, DTS-HD 5.1 English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $49.95

"When medical student Jeffrey Franken's fiancée Elizabeth is accidentally decapitated by a remote-controlled lawnmower, his grief drives him to attempt the impossible. Using questionable medical expertise and body parts harvested from Manhattan street prostitutes lured by his homemade explosive drug "Super Crack," Jeffrey reconstructs Elizabeth, only to discover that her resurrected mind has become dangerously unstable." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, “Frankenhooker (4K Ultra HD) brings Frank Henenlotter's outrageous cult horror-comedy to 4K Ultra HD in a stunning new Dolby Vision restoration created from the archival uncut original 35mm vault materials."

Frankenhooker comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 61.3 GB

Feature: 57.7 GB

The source mostly looks excellent; there are a few very minor moments of imperfections that remain. Flesh tones look correct, colors look vivid, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image retains an organic appearance.

Audio: 5/5 (Both Audio Tracks)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD stereo mix in English and a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English. Both tracks sound clean, clear, balanced, and robust when they should. While the 4.1 track does an excellent job opening things up, I still prefer the stereo track. Included are removable English SDH.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (1 minute 32 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival featurette titled Jennifer Delora's Frankenhooker Photo Scrapbook (11 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival featurette titled A Stitch in Time: The Make-Up Effects of Frankenhooker (20 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actress Jennifer Delora titled Turning Tricks (19 minutes 32 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actress Patty Mullen titled A Salad That Was Once Named Elizabeth (8 minutes 49 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and an archival audio commentary with director Frank Henenlotter and make-up effects designer Gabe Bartalos.

Summary:

After the tragic death of fiancé Elizabeth, who died due to a freak lawnmower accident, Jeffery Franken dreams up a way to bring her back to life. He will give her a new body, taking the best body parts from various prostitutes. Unfortunately, when he reassembles Elizabeth, he gets more than he bargained for; she takes on the personas of the prostitute whose body parts now make up her body. From there, Elizabeth escapes his lab and goes on a rampage through the streets of New York looking for dates and attacking men who take her up on the offer.

Frankenhooker is a variation of Bride of Frankenstein. While there have been other films that played off of Bride of Frankenstein, notably Young Frankenstein and Weird Science, they are tame in comparison to Frankenhooker. The humor in Frankenhooker fits firmly into black humor with its sexually laced and subversive political, ironic dialogue and situations.

Who hasn’t dreamed of putting together a perfect woman? Unlike these other firms that explore a similar idea, the protagonist Jeffrey Franken wants to bring his dead girlfriend Elizabeth back because he misses her and not to advance science. Instead of restoring Elizabeth’s original body, she battled a weight problem; Jeffery creates for her the perfect body.

All around, the cast are excellent in the roles, especially Patty Mullen's (Doom Asylum) portrayal of Frankenhooker. Her character repeats lines of dialogue that the prostitutes said earlier to Jeffery, and the result is some hilarious one-liners. James Lorinz delivers a delirious portrayal of the prototype mad scientist and his characters' enthusiasm for his work is infectious. The most colorful and charismatic character in the file is a pimp named Zorro who brands his ladies with a Z that he burns into their arms.

Without a doubt, the main attraction of Frankenhooker and its most durable asset are the special effects. The most memorable special effects moment is the scene where a group of prostitutes are auditioning for Jeffery, who’s looking for the perfect body parts. Things go awry when one of the girls discovers super crack in his bag, and they start smoking it. By the time the scene concludes, all of the girls have exploded into many pieces from smoking the super crack. That said, moments like this scene remind me why practical special effects were so special and superior to modern CGI.

Part of Frankenhooker’s charm is that the film never takes itself seriously. Frankenhooker might underwhelm some viewers expecting violence and gory set pieces on the same level as the Basket Case films and Brain Damage. That said, Frankenhooker relies more on comedy than Frank Henenlotter’s other films. Ultimately, Frankenhooker’s subversive humor and outrageous premise make for a highly entertaining film.

Frankenhooker makes its way to 4K UHD via an excellent release from Synapse Films. Highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer

Basket Case: Limited Edition – Arrow Video (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1982
Director: Frank Henenlotter
Writer: Frank Henenlotter
Cast: Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel, Diana Browne, Lloyd Pace, Bill Freeman, Joe Clarke

Release Date: April 29th, 2024 (UK), April 30th, 2024 (USA)
Approximate Running Time: 91 Minutes 15 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: 18 (UK), R (USA)
Sound: LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £29.99 (UK), $49.95 (USA)

"Duane Bradley seems like a pretty ordinary guy. His formerly conjoined twin Belial, on the other hand, is a deformed creature who lives in a wicker basket. Arriving in the Big Apple and taking up a room at a seedy hotel, the pair set about hunting down and butchering the surgeons responsible for their separation." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "The original 16mm AB negative reels were scanned via wetgate in 4K. Sections of a 16mm CRI and 35mm interpositive and a 35mm dupe negative were also used. The restoration work included full picture stabilization and the removal of dirt, debris, scratches and other signs of physical wear. All scanning, restoration and SDR grading work was completed at Cineric, New York.

The film was restored on behalf of the Museum of Modern Art, New York and was approved by the film's director Frank Henenlotter.

4K HDR10 / Dolby Vision grading was completed by Fidelity in Motion."

Basket Case comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 87.9 GB

Feature: 63.8 GB

The source looks excellent, flesh tones look healthy, colors are perfectly saturated, image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic. It is hard to imagine Basket Case looking any better than this release.

Audio: 4.5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English with removable English SDH. The audio is in great shape, dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and ambient sounds are well-represented. Range-wise, considering the limitations of the source, this audio track sounds great.

Extras:

Extras for this release include image galleries; promotional stills (46 images), behind the scenes (108 images), ephemera (21 images), advertisements (43 images) and home video releases (9 images), two radio spots (1 minute 51 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a T.V. spot (55 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), three theatrical trailers (4 minutes 54 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), a short animated film titled Belial’s Dream (4 minutes 49 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), a featurette titled Making Belial’s Dream (2 minutes 6 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a short film titled Slash of the Knife with an optional audio commentary by director Frank Henenlotter (30 minutes 13 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), an image gallery for Slash of the Knife, outtakes for Slash of the Knife (5 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an interview with film critic Joe Bob Briggs titled Belial Goes to the Drive-In (6 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), outtakes for Basket Case (6 minutes 13 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a short film titled Basket Case 3 1/2: An Interview with Duane Bradley (8 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival locations featurette from 2001 titled In Search of the Hotel Broslin (16 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a 2017 Q&A from the film’s restoration premiere at the Museum of Modern Art titled Basket Case at MoMA (37 minutes 12 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Director Frank Henenlotter (3 minutes 50 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a video essay about Basket Case titled The Frisson of Fission: Basket Case, Conjoined Twins and ‘Freaks’ in Cinema (23 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Edgar Ievins, Ilze Balodis, Ugis Nigals and Kika Nigals titled The Latvian Connection (27 minutes 33 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actress Beverly Bonner titled Blood, Basket and Beyond (6 minutes 4 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actresses Florence and Maryellen Schultz titled Seeing Double: The Basket Case Twins (8 minutes 55 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actor Kevin VanHentenryck titled Me and the Bradley Boys (16 minutes 24 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a documentary titled What’s in the Basket? (78 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with Frank Henenlotter, producer Edgar Ievins, Beverly Bonner and filmmaker Scooter McRae, an audio commentary with Frank Henenlotter and Kevin VanHentenryck, reversible cover art, a slipcover (limited to this edition), a double-sided fold-out poster, and 28-page booklet with cast & crew information, an essay titled “Case” History written by Michael Gingold, Cham-pain in the Park! – A Basket Case Comic Strip by Martin Trafford and information about the transfer.

Summary:

When it comes to horror cinema, far too often there is a tendency to try to recycle a successful formula. That said, there are a handful of unique films that are an exception to the rule. Case in point: Frank Henenlotter’s (Brain Damage) feature film directorial debut, Basket Case.

Basket Case features what is arguably one of cinema’s most bizarre premises. The narrative is well executed, and Basket Case’s ample amount of “WTF” moments ensure that there is an issue in regards to pacing. And nowhere are these “WTFs” more evident than when it comes to the scenes where Belial unleashes his homicidal rage. Needless to say, these moments of bloodletting are overflowing with gore.

Without a doubt, Basket Case’s greatest asset is Kevin Van Hentenryck’s (Basket Case 2, Basket Case 3) performance in the role of Duane Bradley. His character spends most of his screen time interacting with his brother Belial (who lives in the basket he carries around). Another performance of note is Beverly Bonner (Frankenhooker) in the role of Duane and Belial’s neighbor Casey.

From a production standpoint, there is no area where Basket Case does not excel. The visuals do a superb job of capturing the mayhem that unfolds. Standout moments include a flashback scene that reveals how Duane and Belial were surgically separated and a scene where Belial sneaks into Casey’s room. And the finale provides a perfect coda for the events that have just unfolded. Ultimately, Basket Case is a one-of-a-kind cinematic oddity that is a perfect blend of humor, horror, and mayhem.

Basket Case gets a definitive release from Arrow Video, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer