1988
Director- Fred Olen Ray
Cast- Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer, Jay Richardson, Gunnar
Hansen, Dawn
Wildsmith, Esther Elise, Tricia Burns, Dukey
Flyswatter
Private
dick, Jack Chandler (Richardson) has been hired to find a missing girl. During
his investigation he crosses paths with an Egyptian inspired death cult (lead
by Leatherface himself Gunnar Hansen) that employs chainsaw wielding hookers to
harvest unsuspecting men.
This
sounds like a ridiculous premise and it is. This movie is not meant to be taken
seriously and provides the kind of tongue in cheek combination of sex and death
found in the best of the 80’s B movies.
For fans of 80s horror
movies, there is a lot to recommend this film. First, it stars 2 of the 3
biggest Scream Queens of the decade Linnea Quigley and Michelle Bauer (Brinke
Stevens being the other) and both get a lot screen time. Their images from this
film, Michelle holding the chainsaw phallus style toward the camera and Linnea
painted up for the movie’s finale, have become staples of 80’s horror imagery.
1988 was
a great year for Linnea. Her best role ever ,of course, was as Trash in Return of the Living Dead a few years
earlier, but in ’88 she also co-starred with Michelle Bauer and Brinke Stevens
in both Nightmare Sisters and Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama. This was also the
same year she starred in the excellent Halloween horror film, Night of the Demons.
The
director, Fred Olen Ray has had a prolific career, but this was in the high
point of his career. Hollywood Chainsaw
Hookers is, I think, his best known film and his best realized.
Despite
being silly, this movie has a real punk sensibility. It doesn’t care whether
you take it seriously. It was made insanely cheap. I’ve read estimates ranging
from 25k to 60k, either way, super cheap. It was also supposedly made within a
few days. The film is a great example of spirit shining through despite low
production values.
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