Love of the Ridiculous: The Genuineness of Unseriousness Within Frank Henlotter's Frankenhooker (Abstract)

Lawrence, Jack. “Frankenhooker VHS”. Flickr, 18 November 2017, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/aceofknaves/25377744738/in/photostream/ 

Frank Henlotter’s Frankenhooker (1990) follows Jeffery who reanimates his girlfriend Elizabeth, after a horrific lawn mower accident, using the parts of prostitutes that he kills with a “super crack,” which is an exaggerated form of crack that Jeffery formulates. However, his formula only works with female body parts, so when Jeffery is killed, Elizabeth, who is now the reanimated “Frankenhooker,” reanimates Jeffery by putting his head on a body also made of prostitute parts. As an intrinsically queer film that appeals to Camp, the distinction between seriousness and genuineness, which can be found in effect rather than affect, allows for an understanding of how Camp’s lack of seriousness can have a genuine effect on the serious. The link between monstrous and queerness is also examined in terms of how queerness is understood as a divergence from the hetero-normative sexual standard. The neutral moral space created by this approach allows for the deconstruction of social norms and the gender binary because viewers experience a level of detachment from their discomfort to examine what is revealed about queerness in this film. This culminates in a consideration of the possibility and form of this examination of queerness, by appealing to Camp, and concludes that understanding of queerness – as a way of understanding that which deviates from socio-normative sexual standards – can be gained, not despite, but because of, the film's lack of seriousness.