“Driven by biological excess, a man and a woman search for sexual fulfillment, unaware of each other’s existence. Unfortunately, they eventually meet, and the bonding of these two very unusual human beings ends in a god awful love story.” That’s IMDb’s official synopsis of Bad Biology, the ultra-low-budget 2008 ultra-gross-out that marked the return of Frank Hennenlotter (Basket Case trilogy, Frankenhooker) after a seventeen-year absence, and it’s pretty much accurate.
One gets the feeling that Hennenlotter, whose stock-in-trade has always been cheerfully amoral tongue-in-cheek sleaze, wouldn’t mind a bit. He may well have authored that synopsis. In any case, Bad Biology‘s basic – and it is basic – scenario is the tale of a woman with seven clitorises (opening line: “I was born with seven clits.” You’ll know precisely whether you’re in or out after that.) and a man with a ‘roided-out mutant penis. Along the way there is much nudity and a few – but surprisingly few – scenes of murder, gore and horror. There are also less enticing things, like an entirely irrelevant discussion between three teens of the legendarily-endowed porn star John Holmes. If scenes like this serve any purpose other than to squeeze Bad Biology to just-barely feature length, it’s hard to pinpoint what that might be.
Still, what most recommends Bad Biology is that it found Hennenlotter’s spirit alive and well, undaunted by years of absence, changes in the film industry, or the cancer its creator was fighting as he created the film. Aside from the Cronenberg-meets-Troma sensibility, there’s a real sense of the grit of New York street life visible here and elsewhere, something Hennenlotter shares with underground filmmakers like Abel Ferrara, or early Scorsese. Here, that atmosphere is enhanced by the presence of a good number of New York rappers; R.A. “The Rugged Man” decided to act as producer on the picture basically on a whim after recruiting Hennenlotter as a music video director. Far from diluting the director’s national instincts, this hip-hop influence feels, if anything, like it’s enhanced them. In fact, the flaw here may be that Bad Biology works a little too hard at feeling like a Hennenlotter project; it’s too determined to shock and appal, and it ends up being surprisingly dull just as often as it is outrageously funny. It’s not only the presence of porn actresses that makes it feel like a porno – if you’ve ever sat through one, without abusing the fast-forward, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Still, there’s nothing else quite like it out there, and it’s a damned shame that Hennenlotter has made nothing but documentaries since. Still, newcomers are advised to look elsewhere – perhaps to the original Basket Case – for an introduction to this singular and sadly unprolific filmmaker.
The “package” here is enriched with a number of features; there are two commentaries, one archival and one brand-new, both of which feature Frank Hennenlotter with an assortment of other cast and crew. The modern one features much goofing off, if that’s your kind of thing; but the archival one, recorded when the shooting of the film was still a fresh memory, is far more informative, offering a look at what it takes to shoot a film on a budget of approximately zero. That, in fact, is a theme running not only through these extras, but also Second Sight’s other current rerelease, Nightmares in a Damged Brain, where the making of the film is more interesting than the finished result itself. One particular trial not often faced by filmmakers, independent or otherwise, is shooting in a haunted house; tales of on-set paranormal experiences are shared by most of the film’s crew in the featurette “Spook House”.
The very brief “In the Basement with Charlee Danielson” is – well, it’s kind of what it says on the tin. She chucks a basketball around and destroys many off-screen objects in between answering questions. We learn more from “Deeg and Sneed” in which star and first-time actor Anthony Sneed sits down to chat to cinematographer Nick Deeg. The chat is casual and likeable, covering various topics over the course of around an hour. “Swollen Agenda” features effects artist Gabe Bartalos: “[Frank’s films] can be as extreme as Bad Biology, they can be as out there design-wise as Basket Case 2 and 3, they can be as visceral as Brain Damage […] just Frank, by being the title ‘Frank Hennenlotter’, almost puts an umbrella over all those types of films […] it insulates me from any kind of criticism.” Quite so, though throughout this featurette it’s clear Bartalos in fact revels in this sort of thing. There’s more of this sort of cheerful degeneracy in the making-of “Beyond Bad”, whose highlight comes with the surreally awkward section in which Hennenlotter directs an actress on how to fake a 40-minute-plus orgasm. “Fuck Face” features hip-hop photographer Clay Patrick McBride showing off his photographs of “O”-faces, as briefly used in the film itself (ever seen the Beautiful Agony website-?).
In addition, we get the wonderfully bizarre Anthony Sneed-directed-and-starring short film “Suck” as well as a recent R.A. The Rugged Man video, “Legendary Loser”. Finally, of course, is the usual stills gallery.
So it’s a great set of extras but, mind you, as fun as all of these accounts of the making of Bad Biology are, none prove quite as informative, concise, or entertaining as the rap song that plays over the end credits of the movie itself, Kool G Rap’s “It’s a Rap”.