DVD Review: Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (A-)

Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)
Directed by Fred Olen Ray
Starring Michelle Bauer, Jay Richardson, Gunnar Hansen and Linnae Quigley
MPAA: R
Grade: A-

Review By Bobby Nashville

Bad movies don't get much better than this. Its obvious that director Fred Olen Ray intended this to be a bad movie and usually, that kind of approach just doesn't work. But this movie is genuinely funny and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers truly succeeds as being an intentionally bad film. In fact, for my money, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is the Citizen Kane of chainsaw hooker movies.

The plot for Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is ludicrous. Jack Chandler is an LA private eye sent to find a missing girl, but his investigation leads him into a bizarre world of chainsaw wielding hookers that kill people for some freaky religious cult. The formula here is priceless: steal the blood thirsty cult idea from the classic Herschel Gordon Lewis film Bloodfeast and combine it with the classic private eye film noir storyline. Tossed in a lot of hookers. Give everybody chainsaws and bingo: you've got yourself one hilariously bad movie.

Gunnar Hanson, who played Leatherface in the classic horror film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, plays the leader of the Anubis worshipping cult. Cult movie character actor Jerry Miller (the weird guy driving around LA in Repo Man) is fantastic as a baseball bat loving sex maniac. Jay Richardson is also pretty funny as the private dick Jack Chandler, he gives this role just the right mix of seriousness and camp.

Director Fred Olen Ray has stated this movie was originally financed by an adult film company that wanted to break into the legitimate film industry. I'm not sure how "legitimate" this movie is but it's certainly not porn. There's a ton of nudity but its all so silly that it really doesn't come off as being that sexy. There are lots of bloody chainsaw attacks as well, but they are shot and edited so poorly that this gore actually plays as comedy.

If you see only one chainsaw hooker movie this year, make it Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers.

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