“In a really f-cked up way, this is probably the most fun I’ve ever had…”Unfortunately, the age of mainstream Grindhouse cinema (If that isn’t an oxymoron) has passed.
Gone are such wonderful exploitation titles as Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS and Driller Killer which relied upon violence and gore to shock and entice the viewer, usually also with the use of sex and nudity. Notorious for their low budgets, unknown actors and bloody, exploitative material and subject matter, Grindhouse movies are actually good fun if you take them as cheap, disposable and often cheesy entertainment.
For they held no airs and graces about them, they did exactly what they set out to do.
Dead Hooker in a Trunk is the 2009 feature film debut of Canadian twins Jen and Sylvia Soska, who wrote, directed and starred in this tale of four friends having one really bad day.
‘Badass’ and her geeky twin sister (Sylvia and Jen Soska respectively) come across the body of a hooker in the former’s car trunk.
With Badass and her junkie friend (Rikki Gagne, a friend of the twins) unable to remember what they did the previous night, they panic and decide to bury the body, aided by Geek’s reluctant goody-two-shoes Bible bashing best friend (CJ Wallis, another friend to the Soska’s and also the film’s editor and cinematographer) which is harder than it sounds.
For all the while they are stalked by a mysterious cowboy, haunted by a depraved serial killer and have to contend with the both the police and psychotic Yakuza as their quest simultaneously brings them closer together and further apart.
The story is actually quite good, having the characters slowly become more and more involved with the events to different degrees, and trying to give them all equal screen time so as make them more than mere cannon fodder.
In this respect it plays out almost like a twisted buddy comedy or a road movie made by Ted Bundy and Eli Roth. This is where the macabre humour of the twins feels right at home, with panic, violence and missing limbs the order of the day as the mayhem just gets completely out of control.
Yet the rest of the film is made up of other styles, which sometimes don’t gel as well.
The thriller and investigation elements also work well on their own, with a relatively solid plot coming together as the mystery of the hooker unfolds, but sometimes this takes back seat to the shenanigans of the foursome and their encounters with the various wacky characters of varying levels of derangement. So one moment they’ll be discussing this mayhem around a campfire in a surprisingly subtle and smooth scene, whilst the next a man will be tortured gruesomely with the contents of a toolbox. This swift change of pace, as well the strange idea to insert black humour into some of their more violent scenes, may be a little too jarring for some viewers. Others will love it.
Cast-wise, the actors are surprisingly competent.
In what is a polished first attempt, the Soskas and their friends portray the gang of four in their own way, with personalities and banter that mix, grind against each other and give the group a dynamic. Particular merit has to go to CJ Wallis as Goody Two-Shoes, who grounds proceedings and acts as an oft-ignored moral compass to Badass and Junkie, whilst being tormented by his feelings for best friend Geek. Other cast members include the unknown, yet experienced, Jon Tench as the cowboy, a role he clearly takes to with much gusto and plays for all it is worth without being hammy or ridiculous (Though, in a film such as this that wouldn’t be too far amiss).
The biggest name, and possibly the main reason this film has become known (Aside from its title and endorsement by Eli Roth) is independent movie icon Carlos Gallardo (Star of the Robert Rodriguez debut El Mariachi) who plays an odd taxi driver that picks up Goody Two-Shoes.
Gallardo is no stranger to independent movies and is a fine actor, whose scene almost adds a bizarre second layer of spirituality and symbolism to the film. For a moment it is in danger of falling into pretentious student art-house territory, but it then ratchets up the pace again with new revelations, some trashy violence and genuinely interesting character development.
So despite (Or perhaps because of) its unusual title and the fact that it is endorsed by cinema lunatic Eli Roth, Dead Hooker in a Trunk provides fine amounts of intrigue, chasing, panic, plot and enough gratuitous swearing and Grindhouse violence to keep you entertained from start to finish.
But what if it doesn’t give you at least some satisfaction, or leaves you wishing it weren’t so shallow?
Just look at the title.
