Dead Hooker in a Trunk

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-

I recently saw the film American Mary which was directed by the Soska Twins. I was pretty impressed, as it was quite an interesting and fairly original horror concoction. With this in mind I had to see their debut movie, the brilliantly titled Dead Hooker in a Trunk. Well, after seeing it, all I can say is that they definitely got a lot better. In fairness, this movie seems to have been made on an ultra-low budget, we're taking peanuts here. But even cutting the Soska's some slack on this front, that doesn't change my view that Dead Hooker in a Trunk is a really terrible movie.

Its plot-line is certainly high-concept - four friends find a dead hooker in the trunk of their car. That's it more or less. A strong story is certainly no requirement in a good film but a movie needs to get other things right in the absence of one. And on a technical and artistic level this is an abomination. It has terrible camera-work and sound; really bad acting and an awful script. It's overall just too amateurish to offer very much to anybody. I am nevertheless pleased that these two Canadian sisters have gone on to do better things – as apart from anything else, there should be more women directors out there – but this debut just isn't good on any level I am afraid.

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.

Amidst the list of other movies attempting to pay tribute to the grindhouse spirit at the Pollygrind Festival in Las Vegas, NV. The Film "Dead hooker in the Trunk" was the highlight of my time. The twin sisters (Jen and Sylvia AKA Twisted Twins) delivered an extremely well executed film.

Basic story is about a group of teenagers driving around town in their black Camero notice a strange smell coming from the car. They pull over and open the trunk to find a dead hooker hidden in it. It just gets crazier from there. You might have a hard time catching your breath between each crazy event!

They did an amazing job considering what their budget probably was. The script was well written, the cinematography was decent, the special effects where low budget which actually added to the charm of the film. Also I have to mention that the twins are not only beautiful but they are good actors.(something that is often overlooked in films in this caliber)

This film was a true passion project. Not only did the sisters star in this joyride, but they produced and directed it. And I can't forget C.J Wallas, who played the "Goody Two-shoes". He is also credited for the cinematography, editing and composing of this film.

If you are looking for the normal multi-million dollar cookie cutter action film filled your high priced actors, expensive car chases, explosion or even the latest 3D animation, you won't enjoy this film. But you are looking for some fresh new faces and good old fashion story telling, check this film out.

I am anxious to see what Twisted Twins do next!

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.