Review by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Rikki Gagne, Sylvia Soska, Jen Soska, John Tench, CJ Wallis, Lloyd Bateman,
Carlos Gallardo, Tasha Moth, Jamie Bell, Dahlia Moth | Written by Sylvia & Jen Soska
UK Certification 18 | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 85 minutes | Directed by Sylvia & Jen Soska
What if? That is a question that plenty of film-makers innocently ask themselves, not knowing that it's about to become the fruit of the idea for their next movie. So, what if you found a dead hooker in the trunk of your car?
Written, directed, produced by and starring Sylvia and Jen Soska, aka the Twisted Twins, Dead Hooker in a Trunk is the feature-length realisation of a fake trailer inspired by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse, as well as the independent movie-making book Rebel Without a Crew, again by Rodriguez.
It's a grimy, low-budget affair that revolves around four polar-opposites – affectionately known as The Cunt, Junkie, Geek and Goody Two Shoes – who find a corpse in their car along with a considerable amount of cocaine, kick-starting an ultra-violent fight for survival against gangsters, the cops and a serial killer, among others, as they search for the answers behind the mysterious appearance of the body.
As you can see from the aforementioned names, the principle cast are a bit of a motley crew of archetypal characters, yet somewhat refreshingly they remain unpredictable in their actions as the unnerving intensity of their predicament increases, thankfully preventing them from being the pure cookie cutter throwaways that are so prevalent in horror, which could have so easily happened.
The Soska sisters' passion and admiration for the genre and all of its immensely trashy particles is as obvious as the amount of blood that is shed (hint: a lot), and while it may not be the Citizen Kane of exploitation and sleaze, it's still fun, gritty, sordid and gory enough to reach the status of an instant cult classic.
EXTRAS ??? Directors' and producers' audio commentaries; deleted scenes; a behind the scenes featurette; the theatrical, preview and festival trailers; and a discussion with actor Carlos Gallardo of Rodriguez's El Mariachi fame, who makes a cameo appearance in the film.