Bad Biology

"Bad Biology" wasn't as interesting as I would have hoped. Henenlotter makes one-of-a-kind movies, some of which are certified cult classics, like "Basket Case" and "Brain Damage". You know you're going to see something different when you watch one of his movies.

"Bad Biology" does have an interesting concept. We have a young woman with a strangely overdeveloped reproductive system: she has at least seven clitorises, can orgasm just by crossing her legs, and is a nymphomaniac who gives birth within hours after having sex, and simply leaves her "freak babies" to die in trash cans.

She meets a young man whom she believes might finally be able to satisfy her: he has an enormous, insatiable penis he talks to, and is addicted to drugs he uses to keep it subdued.

The stage is set for what could have been a very interesting kind of love story between two "freaks". Instead, it takes too long for the characters to meet, and they never really have a relationship. The whole movie feels pedestrian; lazily shot and put together, the line readings mostly unnatural and the dialogue scenes poorly edited.

For some reason there area few refugees from the underground hip-hop scene involved in front and behind the camera: Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks, Remedy from the Wu-Tang Clan, and R.A. the Rugged Man.

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.

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.

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.