Bad Biology

Known for his own brand of body horror, usually involving forms of parasite and their symbiotic relationship with mostly male protagonists, Frank Henenlotter has not directed a feature film since 1992's Basket Case 3, a sequel to his excellent debut feature Basket Case (1982). Whilst his previous work focused on male stories of addictions and afflictions largely involving strange parasites, detached, mutated brothers, and one creating and manipulating using substance addiction, Bad Biology's focus is on a young woman, Jennifer (Charlee Danielson), who has a very unique affliction that she has learnt to control.

Jennifer has an incredible amount of clitoris's, and is overly sexual. Her biology is also accelerated which leads to her giving birth to malformed premature babies two hours after having sex. Her main goal in life is to feed this high sexuality, but psychologically she really wants love, but her deformities hold this back. This is until, of course, she stumbles on a reclusive man who suffers from an equally weird affliction, and a penis that has it's own consciousness.

It is typical Henenlotter, with the right amount of gross-out horror involving mutant cocks and gruesome, deaths. His brand of body horror (unlike David Cronenberg's style) has an abundance of spot on humour. Bad Biology is not his greatest film by a long shot, but it does pass by quickly, and is often very fun. OK, so the special effects are completely silly, and seems not to have progressed since his original Basket Case, but the stop-motion, detached phallus, eating though walls, is still repulsively amusing.

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Amongst the true die-hard fanatics of trashy grindhouse exploitation/horror cinema, a select but obsessive alliance of which I'm a proud member, the comeback of writer/director Frank Hennenlotter was pretty much of one the most anticipated events of the new millennium. The legendary director of trash-classics like "Brain Damage" and "Frankenhooker" hadn't made any films since the disappointing sequels to his classic "Basket Case" in the early 90's. It may have taken Hennenlotter 16 years to direct another film, but he certainly hasn't lost his sense of tastelessness yet. Quite the contrary, I'd say, "Bad Biology" is probably the trashiest and most lurid film in many years. Not bad for a nearly 60-year-old director who hasn't been active in all those years. Right from the opening monologue already, you know exactly what type of movie this will be. A young girl, named Jennifer, enlightens us about her unusual anatomic condition: "I was born with seven clits". The poor girl is sexually insatiable, obviously, and often becomes so involved in the act that she murders her bed partners. If that isn't enough yet, she also gives birth to creepy mutant babies barely two hours after intercourse. With her job as erotic photographer, Jennifer comes into contact with her male antipole. Batz has a monstrous penis, a result of steroid overdose as a teenager, with a mind and sex hunger of its own. The penis causes prostitutes to have orgasms that last hours and goes out alone at night for a raping stroll.

Although I overall really enjoyed my viewing of "Bad Biology", I can't say it was the successful return feature that I wanted it to be. The film contains a handful of terrific basic ideas (like the mutant babies) and some hilarious sequences (throbbing penis penetrates walls), but the wholesome feels somewhat too forced. Hennenlotter tries a little too hard to demonstrate that he is still his old sick-in-the-head self or even that he has become even more perverted during his absence. The main storyline, appropriately described in the tagline as "one god-awful love story" is too thin and Hennenlotter doesn't succeed in holding the viewer's attention until the ending. The wannabe blackly comical jokes and situations often miss their effect and the script is actually at its funniest when reverting to blunt and tasteless images, like a POV shot from inside a vagina or the sight of a man wrestling with his own penis. "Bad Biology" is gory enough to satisfy trash-lovers, with some stupendously over-the-top and gratuitous make-up effects and crazy scenery. Even at barely 85 minutes of playtime, the film contains quite a lot of pointless padding footage, like a couple of teenagers discussing legendary porn star John Holmes in a snack bar and a couple of crack-addicted junkies arguing to each other. All the players were amateurs with zilch experience, so I guess the acting – albeit very bad – could even have been a lot worse. I'm glad Hennenlotter returned, and I enjoyed his bonkers film a lot more than I enjoyed the nowadays overload of remakes and stupid teen slashers, but regretfully his comeback isn't the trash-triumph it could have been.

At the center of Bad Biology is a girl who has not one but multiple pleasure centers. As a result she tells us she is a true nymphomaniac. She also has an accelerated metabolism which causes her to give birth minutes after getting pregnant. She just discards the little monsters. During the daytime she is a professional and edgy photographer.

We also learn about a guy who has a problem with his genitals. He injects steroids in them and as a result his organ now is a drug addict with a mind of its own.

These two were born to meet. And they do. But unfortunately for her, at that point, his organ has detached from his owner to look for girls, since he is too shy. But eventually the two will meet.

Bad Biology is among all the "extreme" movies indeed quite wild and extreme. It's also a very adolescent and fun movie. But it's a bit unpleasant at first. There is no shortage of story and script here, as plenty of actors engage in long monologues delivered as fast as possible. Sometimes you do get the impression that the lines are more rapped than spoken and indeed there were a lot of rappers involved in Bad Biology- starting with the writer/producer/actor. But it does get tiring when everybody is talking so much. For a movie about these sort of themes, there should have been a lot more nudity though. It's late in the movie when we finally get some nice nudity. Our two lead characters are likable but of course some of their actions make little sense. The effects are alright, but the look of the movie overall is a bit cheap. Bad Biology does win you over eventually with its enthusiasm and uncompromising outrageousness. It is radical and different but less serious, for fans of extreme movies in the vein of Dead Girl and A Serbian Film.

You know, I'm still trying to think of how to review this movie. It's disgusting as hell, and also about as sleazy as you can get, but that's exactly what Frank Henenlotter was shooting for, and he exceeds as always. We start with the story of a woman that has seven clits, and is constantly getting off, or looking to get off. And not only that, but after each time she gets it on with a guy, she has a mutant baby within two hours, which she just flat out discards. Now that should be enough, but nope, there is also a dude that has a huge penis that pretty much thinks for itself, and requires constant stimulation to keep the dude from going insane. So he has this jerking off machine which is a hoot, and also plenty of drugs from his fixer to keep him totally screwed up, which helps in handling his huge, and I mean HUGE monster penis. So here we have, a woman with a 24 hour a day sex drive, and a man with the male equivalent. Perfect match so you say?? Not so fast.... By the time they meet, the monster prick has taken off on its own, leaving the poor dude behind. Yep, a monster prick that goes around searching for women, and having not much of a problem finding them. So how does this all end? Well, that's why you watch the movie. Frank Henenlotter is definitely a unique filmmaker, with a few of the most amazing gore films ever made, and I love his work. This movie is a little different, because it was basically written by a rap artist, who is also the producer. The commentary explains all of that, because it's him and Frank doing the talking, and they seem to be having fun. Many of the roles in the film are also rap artists, and the music is pretty much all rap or close to it. It doesn't make much difference, because there are so many naked gorgeous women mostly with large breasts in this movie, that I didn't pay a lot of attention to the music. Some people might almost call this movie soft porn, and I doubt the filmmakers would disagree, but it does have a big Frank Henenlotter blood and gore element to it, and also all that strangeness we find in only his movies. For me, I like it, it's certainly a lot better than "Black Devil Doll", which I have still not reviewed. Those two movies are really not that similar, but they do both feature a lot of naked women with large breasts. Soooo, yes, you definitely need to have this one in your collection, if for no other reason, than it's a Frank Henenlotter film, and those are far and few between, which is sad to me, because it is definitely a one of a kind.

In the late 80s, cult horror auteur Frank Henenlotter got a bad case of sequelitis, churning out two follow-ups to his low-budget masterpiece of splatter Basket Case in quick succession. Then he virtually disappeared.

Now, after a sixteen year hiatus from movie directing, he's finally back with something original—and my god, do I mean original!! Opening with the amazing line 'I was born with seven clits', the latest offering from Henenlotter is completely insane from the word go—a fabulously fun and filthy farrago of sordid sex, crazy violence and insatiable, self-conscious genitalia that is without a doubt the director's sleaziest effort so far.

Charlee Danielson plays Jennifer, the owner of the aforementioned multi-buttoned beaver, whose bizarre biology causes her to feed on orgasms and give birth to partially-formed mutant babies just two hours after sex. Understandably a little unbalanced, Jennifer has developed an uncontrollable rage that sometimes results in the death of her sexual partners. What she really needs is someone equipped to fully satisfy her urges... someone like Batz (Anthony Sneed) whose penis has grown to massive proportions after being repeatedly injected with a cocktail of drugs (many of which were designed for use on farm animals!).

Obviously, with a demented plot like that, Bad Biology is aimed at those discerning movie lovers who enjoy their entertainment 'out-there', and they will definitely not be disappointed: Henenlotter's bonkers script sees Jennifer enthusiastically work her way through several lovers, leave her screaming new born babies abandoned in the trash, and bash in one poor guy's head with a bedside lamp, pausing occasionally to apologise for her behaviour. Meanwhile, Batz wrestles with his prehensile member, tries to score obscure drugs from a local dealer, straps himself into a massive piston-driven sex toy for some fun, and causes a hooker to go into a never-ending spasm of pleasure. Eventually, his member detaches itself to go in search of action on its own, before locating Jennifer and allowing her to experience a state of rapture.

Given the bizarre nature of his films, Henenlotter has always had to fund his own work, and unfortunately, this time around, the lack of cash is obvious, with the film having a nasty, cheap look to it (despite reportedly being shot on 35mm film), and a cast who could do with a few more acting lessons. Other than that, however, the film is just too weird not to love: Gabe Bartalos, the man who made Henenlotter's lovable creatures Belial and Aylmer, is once again responsible for some rather shonky creations, including Jennifer's mutant snatch and Batz's thrashing schlong, but somehow the naffness of the effects only makes them more endearing (hell, I've almost forgiven the man for directing Skinned Deep); there's wall-to-wall nudity from a bevy of fit women (including a photo-shoot featuring topless models wearing vagina masks); and the film ends with the birth of a walking penis baby!! Now don't tell me that hasn't piqued your interest...