Bad Biology

Bad Biology is a weird one. The story itself is okay. It's perverse, imaginative and just plain screwy. But when put on film, it's a unfunny, kinda boring flick that felt like it tried too hard. There are some ideas that would be better to be put on paper format, and some on celluloid. Bad Biology would have been a great novella, but a 90 minute flick with bad unlikeable characters, mediocre writing with jokes that fall flat every which way, and ridiculous but still unfunny situations, the story all but fails. There's a lot of nudity, that's the plus side.

The story is supposed to be a "God Awful Love Story", but it's anything but. It's basically just two freaks who end up meeting one another, and there is zero love anywhere. Just that dumb chick speaking to the camera on how she's special, which I guess, is supposed to make us think she deserves love. The dude barely pays attention to her. I know it's supposed to be an awful love story, but there's zero love in it. It's a god awful sex story, that's for sure.

I had high hopes for Hennenlotter's latest because it did sound pretty good. If the movie had any chance of succeeding it would have been in the comedy department. A recent flick that's slightly horror/comedy like this that did a much better job was Teeth. Instead of revolving around the two freaks, they should have focused more on the freak babies. Eh, whatever. Besides the plethora of nudity it was also fun seeing Rude Jude from Jenny Jones.

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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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.

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...

I'm not familiar Frank Henenlotter's work. I haven't seen any other of his movies. I watched this one because of the positive comments I found on IMDb. But believe me - watching this movie is complete waste of time. The plot is terrible, the acting is terrible (especially by Charlee Danielson), the special effects are (guess what?) terrible, and the music is simply annoying. The music seems to be made on a cheap keyboard by a person that doesn't know how to make music. It could be a great movie, because the idea for it is good, but there are too many things in it that make it not worth watching. This movie is utterly bad and I don't understand why some people should find it so great.