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Film: Dead Hooker in a Trunk
Year: 2009
Director: Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska
Writer: Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska
Starring: Rikki Gagne, Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska
Review:
This film begins grainy homemade footage. It doesn’t give us much, which will be a theme throughout the film. We then shift to a woman showing up to a bar, she is played by Sylvia Soska. She kisses a guy and then goes behind the bar where she works. There is a woman who is singing on stage who turns out to be her friend. It should be noted that she is a junkie, played by Rikki Gagne. We also see a hooker in the bar played by Tasha Moth.
We then shift to the next morning. Soska’s twin sister is a geek, played by Jen Soska. We get a brief flashback that their mother was raising them by herself when the father showed up. Their mother pulled a gun and ends up getting shot. The younger version of Sylvia shoots her father.
Back to the present, Jen wants Sylvia to come with her to pick-up her from his youth camp. Gagne wants Sylvia to take her to pick up more drugs. She decides to help both of them. They go to a church where they meet Jen’s friend, who is played by C.J. Wallis. He is playing the piano and singing about Jesus. He is mocked by Sylvia and Gagne. Sylvia does hit on the priest, played by Loyd Bateman
When they are driving to meet with Gagne’s dealer, they notice a smell. They get out and check the trunk to find Moth. She is dead. They try to figure out what to do. Jen wants to call the police while Sylvia just wants to bury her. It is decided to go take her to a motel to clean off the evidence.
While they are there, Jen uses Moth’s body to get a free room and then clean her up. Jen then calls the police and Sylvia has to seduce them, before she knocks them out. She then handcuffs them together. She then knocks her sister out cold for calling them.
They go to the dealer’s house and Gagne goes in to get the drugs. While she is inside, she has sexual intercourse with him. There is a knock at the door and some Triads have shown up. They bring in a chainsaw and begin to cut Gagne’s arm off. They have the dealer in the bathroom and pulling his insides out.
While in the car, Sylvia is pushing Wallis, telling him she thinks he is cute, asking if he is gay and if he likes her sister. When Jen wakes up, Sylvia gives her form of an apology. They hear a chainsaw. Sylvia goes inside with her gun and saves Gagne.
We have seen Moth be attacked earlier in the film and know that the person who did is wearing a hoodie. This same person attacks Jen outside. He knocks her right eye out, but they fight him off. They regroup to figure out what to do. Jen states that she can help herself and Gagne, she just needs supplies. A semi comes back, taking Gagne’s arm off all the way.
They get some supplies and then go out to the woods. Jen puts electrical tape over her eye with an x. Wallis sews Gagne’s arm back on, which is good until they can get her to a doctor. They then bury Moth’s body. From here, everyone splits and goes their separate ways. It should be pointed out that Wallis goes on a cussing rampage as he gets sick of the fighting.
Wallis gets into a cab with Carlos Gallardo, who plays God. He gives him some sound advice to go get the girl he loves. He finds Jen and they go to see what they can learn about Moth. This is when they realize there is a serial killer out there. Can they find Sylvia and Gagne before it is too late? Can they find this killer and put an end to him, before he claims more victims? Who is the killer?
I have to say that this film is quite disjointed, but I learned that this film is paying homage to the grind-house films. This means that it is over the top, there is gore, lots of violence and parts of the story really don’t make sense. The film in general is pretty much that way as well. I do have to say that I really commend Jen and Sylvia Soska for what they do. They put a lot of hard work into this film with a shoe-string budget. I give them credit for that, but I feel it would have been better to actually put together a coherent story. I can’t say the acting is bad, because they are trying to be over the top and stereotyped, which they did a really good job of. Since that’s what they are going for, I can’t fault them.
I have already expressed what I didn’t care for in this is how overdone most of this film is. The story doesn’t make a lot of sense, but some of the grind-house, campy films did not. I didn’t like that the characters really didn’t have names either. I won’t rehash all the issues I had, since I have already pointed them out.
If you like grind-house films, I would give this a viewing as it pays homage to them. It is pretty much a parody of films from that era. The acting is overdone, but I think that was done by design. It has a shoe-string budget and you can tell throughout the film. If you like blood, a lot of violence and craziness, give this one a viewing. The Soska Twins made exactly what they wanted to and I commend them for that. If this sounds good, I would give it a viewing, but don’t be surprised how crazy it is.
My Rating: 4 out of 10