16. STAPH ONLY: Why doesn’t anyone read the warning signs at the biology lab anymore?
Frank Henenlotter gave us the slimy, basket-bound horror of Basket Case, the brain-draining, syringe-addicted delirium of Brain Damage and the neon-soaked, reanimated streetwalker majesty of Frankenhooker. He went radio silent for eighteen years after 1991’s Basket Case 3 until Bad Biology.
And it’s…well, do you like Henenlotter?
Because I do.
Written by Henenlotter alongside rapper R.A. “The Rugged Man” Thorburn (who also produced and briefly pops up as an aggressive ex-boyfriend), Bad Biology was shot under astonishing conditions. Henenlotter was diagnosed with cancer just a month before production began, so he started the day getting his radiation treatments before rushing to set by 9:00 AM to direct. And oh yeah, this was filmed inside a haunted Brooklyn mansion once owned by the infamous cult preacher Father Divine.
Father Divine, born George Baker, was a prominent American spiritual leader who founded the International Peace Mission movement. Emerging in the early 20th century, he built a multiracial, international congregation and claimed to be God incarnate, leading many to categorize him as a cult leader. Operating largely out of Harlem during the Great Depression, his movement established cooperative hotels (“Heavens”), affordable restaurants and businesses that provided food and shelter to impoverished communities, eventually making him Harlem’s largest property owner. Father Divine championed strict codes of conduct—prohibiting sex, alcohol and tobacco—while promoting patriotism, capitalism and early anti-lynching campaigns.
Oh yeah, the movie. Well, it’s NYC grime, as you’d expect, plenty of blood and guts, and tons of underground hip hop cameos, like Vinnie Paz, Reef the Lost Cause, and J-Zone.
Imagine a twisted, bio-mutant Sleepless in Seattle where the two leads are destined to meet—except instead of yearning over the radio, they are both tortured by absurd, hyper-sexual genetic anomalies. First, we meet Jennifer (Charlee Danielson), a high-fashion photographer with a secret: she has seven clitorises (someone introduce her to Sixteen Tongues), a hyper-metabolism and an unstoppable urge to pick up random men for violent, mind-blowing sex. The catch? During her earth-shattering orgasms, she murders her partners, photographs their dying faces for art and immediately gives birth to mutated babies that she dumps in bathtubs and junkyards.
Then there’s Batz (Anthony Sneed), a reclusive, miserable guy whose penis was accidentally amputated at birth and reattached. Years of self-medicating his crotch with black-market drugs have turned his member into a self-aware, python-sized drug addict that writhes wildly inside his boxers and literally talks to him. He also builds a mechanical jack-off toy that he uses to send a sex worker into an endless orgasm that causes her to lose her sanity.
When Jennifer’s film crew rents Batz’s house to shoot a rap video, these two kids are finally brought together.
By the end, Batz’s python-penis detaches entirely, burrowing through the apartment walls to rampage through the building, including attacking SOV queen Tina Krause. By the time Jennifer bursts into the room, Batz’s rogue appendage is dying, despite Jennifer’s CPR, then — look, spoilers, but even if I tell you you won’t believe it — these two lovebirds bang it out until they both die, giving birth to a baby penis.
Again, do you like Hennelotter?
Because if you do, you know what you’re getting: The kind of movie drugs that make you grind your teeth until your gums are bloody.
