BAD BIOLOGY
Getting their freak on
RELEASED OUT NOW! 2009 | 18 | Blu-ray
Director Frank Henenlotter
Cast Charlee Danielson,
Anthony Sneed, Jude Angelini, Eleonore Hendricks
A return (but not to form) after a nearly two-decade absence for the director of Basket Case and Brain Damage, Frank Henenlotter’s bad taste body horror about two sexual mutants wastes no time laying out its stall. The very first line sees photographer Jennifer (Charlee Danielson) declaring, “I was born with seven clits.” In the third scene she shags a pick-up to death. In the fourth, she squeezes out a rapidly-gestated mutant baby.
Matching her in the “suboptimal Tinder date” stakes is Anthony Sneed’s Batz, whose attempts to revive a flaccid phallus backfired; now it’s a snake-like 30-incher with a mind of its own.
Best watched, if your home is semi-detached, with a finger hovering over the mute button, it is (thanks to funding by a rapper who roped in pals) tiresomely heavy with homie-speak, and the relentless barrage of sexualised provocation proves a turn-off. While on paper there may be something funny about a stop-motion cock worming its way along the floor, once it’s battering through skirting boards to rape five women in succession, the target audience contracts to 14-year-old boys and hyukhyuking stoners.
Extras A sofa-bound chat between Sneed and the DOP (67 minutes) is both illuminating and charming. Sneed also supplies an amusing short (2023, 12 minutes) about a guy who becomes obsessed with finger-sucking.
A half-hour Making Of focuses on whether the main location was haunted. Make-up effects guy Gabe Bartalos talks through the key gags (20 minutes). Behindthe-scenes footage (32 minutes) treats you to the director giving an actress detailed notes on her orgasm face... Plus: commentaries (one new, one old), both featuring Henenlotter; an eight-minute bit on shooting Jennifer’s photos; music video; gallery. Ian Berriman
The location used for Batz’s house once belonged to Father Divine, a black preacher who claimed to be God.