Both Frankenhooker (1990) and Re-Animator (1985) are comedy/horror movies having to do with bringing the dead back to life. While Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz), the protagonist in Frankenhooker is obsessed with bringing his dead fiance back to life, Herbert West (Jeffery Combs), the protagonist in Re-Animator is obsessed with improving and perfecting his reanimation serum and will use any undamaged corpse to test it on.
I thought Frankenhooker was a little more gruesome because of Jeffrey's inventing "killer crack" to lure and kill hookers so he could use their body parts to build his dead fiance, Elizabeth (Patty Mullen), a new body to sew her head onto, since her head is the only undamaged body part he has left of her. At least Herbert didn't create his own corpses to test his serum on.
It was fun to see Louise Lasser as Jeffery's mom and the scene between the two of them in Jeffery's room was so well-written and Lasser's sense of timing was impeccable as usual. However, the funniest scenes were when Frankenhooker escaped and was on the loose in Times Square and muttered the remarks we heard earlier from the dead hookers whose body parts she is inhabiting. The body work she performs on Jeffery at the end after she regains her identity as Elizabeth is pretty humorous as well.
Even though Frankenhooker was funny and gross, I preferred the humor and creative effects of Re-Animator as Dr. Hill's (David Gale), headless corpse carries his head around in a metal pan and the goofy face of Dr. Halsey ( as Dr. Hill's zombie-with-a-lobotomy slave.
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