Dead Hooker in a Trunk

DHIAT's so-called "originality" did not distract me from its oddly paced, and often disengaging, story-telling. It seemed as if the Soska Sisters abandoned all, if any, logic in their script to boost its own bizarreness and eccentricity. Movies don't exactly demand realism (nor do I), but in this case it resulted in a laughable story that just felt too unbalanced to offer room for its humor to surface. In other words, they tried too hard. Whether they tried too hard to be witty or weird, humorous or homage-y, the Soska Sisters didn't know which direction to take their debut so they ended up taking all of them. Their decision made DHIAT a tangled and stupid effort. The dialogue was so stereotypically and poorly written, it literally had me finishing the sentences the actors were saying. (Ever heard that about a Tarantino flick?? Yeah, so don't go comparing them with QT) The acting, at times, was convincing… But how hard is it to act like a whore, a nerd or a religious douche? I guess I understand why people really like it though; it's a (moderately) violent homage to Grindhouse films, that actually has a pretty fun sub-plot about a masked serial killer that's worth mentioning. The Soska Sisters did their best considering their budget and will be welcomed with open arms in the horror community. Personally, I think they will be receiving a bit more than they deserve.

Four very different friends, including two sisters, find themselves in an epic predicament when, after a night of partying, they discover a dead hooker in the trunk of their car. While trying to find out just who she is and how she got their, the group encounter several crazy situations, including a serial killer who is hot on their trail.

The film is a breath of fresh air in its originality; it sheds all genre clichés to offer an unpredictable, and for the most part entertaining ride. The film blends several genres, one minute acting as a brutal grindhouse slasher, the next a buddy road trip comedy. I works and it's an accomplishment in itself that a film that attempts to be so many different things never loses focus. Despite this, the film is not as effective as it could have been. The characters are underwritten and unlikable. Their reactions to the situations they encounter are often inappropriate or unrealistic to the point of being distracting at points (after having an eyeball knocked out, exactly how long can one go with no medical attention and a piece of duct tape over the socket?) Still, Dead Hooker in a Trunk is a creative, ambitious first feature from the Soska sisters. With a tighter script and a bigger budget, they certainly could be forces within the genre.

FrightMeter Grade: B-

Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009)

* (out of 4)

Badass (Sylvia Soska), Geek (Jen Soska), Junkie (Rikki Gagne) and Goody Two Shoes (C.J. Wallis) discover a dead hooker in their trunk and that's about it. The Soska twins directed, wrote and stars in this movie that seems to have gotten some pretty glowing reviews but I'm a little confused as to why because I found the film incredibly hard to get through. The film isn't a complete disaster so I'll start off with the only good thing. I think the vision of the film was actually quite good and it's hard to believe that this thing was shot for just a couple thousand dollars. I give the sisters credit for certainly having an eye because they've made this film look quite professional and that there is saying quite a bit considering how most low-budget horror films look. With that said, the rest of the film was pretty much dreadful with the story being the most annoying thing. I'm not really sure what the point of the film was except to come off like a Quentin Tarantino movie and mix countless genres together with quick dialogue, over-the-top violence and other bizarre matters. The problem here is that none of it works as the story never makes a bit of sense and the characters are all just annoying to the point where you're hoping they all die. The movie has one drawn out sequence after another and sometimes we get some graphic gore but more often than not it's just dialogue full of F-bombs. The performances aren't the greatest in the world but they are slightly better than we typically see in this type of picture. I know many are calling this a "terrific homage to grindhouse pictures" but I found the film to be far from that. I guess people will have to make up their own minds but while the Soska girls show talent here, the final result is quite horrid.

The Soska sisters are two of the more interesting characters working in horror today... identical twins with a seriously twisted outlook on life who have thus far written, directed, produced, and starred in several shorts and two full length indie movies, Dead Hooker In A Trunk (2009) and body modification horror American Mary (2012). Suitably impressed by the latter, I felt compelled to check out their debut feature; sadly, Dead Hooker is nowhere near as an accomplished effort, being yet another weak Tarantino-style grind-house homage that wants to be both ultra-cool edgy thriller AND over-the-top splat-stick, but which ends up simply being a mess.

Jen Soska plays 'Geek', a bible-thumping church-goer; Sylvia plays her sister 'Badass', the yin to her yang, a tattooed bitch in a tight black vest who refuses to take crap from anyone. Together with 'Goody Two Shoes' (C.J. Wallis), Jen's virginal boyfriend, and crap punk-rock singer 'Junkie' (Rikki Gagne), they are thrown into a world of chaos and violence after the discovery of a dead hooker and some bags of cocaine in the trunk of their car.

While I admire the Soska's for their attitude and obvious enthusiasm, I cannot bring myself to praise what is very clearly the work of naive newcomers; behind the admittedly nifty title lies a poorly written wreck of a film with embarrassingly bad dialogue and some truly terrible acting, not least from the sisters themselves. The action meanders aimlessly from one frustratingly logic-free scene to the next, the characters making ridiculously bad decisions, shrugging off severe (and probably fatal) injuries, and somehow developing incredible fighting skills along the way. About the only real fun to be had is with some cheap and cheerful OTT gore.

Thankfully, American Mary suggests that Jen and Sylvia have since honed their writing skills and are now happy to appear in cameos, leaving the main roles to real actors. A wise decision ladies.

I read some pretty positive reviews for this film, and am always willing to support indy film.

but seriously WTF! I just payed 7 bucks to rent this, I feel so strongly about it that I will ask for my money back from the store.

I could only sit through 20 minutes of it. When the movie starts the first thing you will notice is just how terrible the audio is.

quickly followed by the lighting, camera work. and editing.

you will not know what the hell is going on.

Then when the performances start you will face palm at the writing and execution.

The thing that bothers me most is that the film makers have cast themselves in the lead roles, when really, if they cared at all about film making, they would have stayed on the other side of the camera, at least that way they could have attempted to limit the damage of every other terrible element at work.

0 out of 10