Known for Directing
Frank Henenlotter, is an American screenwriter, director and film historian. He is known primarily for his horror comedies, though he would prefer to be classified as an "exploitation" filmmaker (rather than horror). "I never felt that I made ‘horror films’, he has said. "I always felt that I made exploitation films. Exploitation films have an attitude more than anything – an attitude that you don’t find with mainstream Hollywood productions. They’re a little ruder, a little raunchier, they deal with material people don’t usually touch on, whether it’s sex or drugs or rock and roll."
Born
August 29, 1950 (age 76)
Birthplace
New York City, New York, USA
Filmography
43 films


Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana
2018 · 1h 45m
Florida, 1994. Artist Mike Diana is convicted on an obscenity charge in the wake of an undercover police officer purchasing his limited edition zine Boiled Angel. Here is the very unusual story of what led to this First Amendment debacle happening for the first time in the United States.


Basket Case 3-1/2: An Interview With Duane Bradley
2018 · 8m
A short film by Frank Henenlotter.


Chasing Banksy
2015 · 1h 33m
A breezy comedy set in the art world of New York that brings an insider's insight into the financial troubles that constantly beset a group of Big Apple artists struggling to survive.


That's Sexploitation!
2013 · 2h 16m · US
Before the advent of modern-day pornography, a vast and rapidly-paced world of smut peddling was the norm, complete with its own secret history. This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past. Starting in the 1920s, expert exploiteer David F. Friedman and Henenlotter navigate us through more than five salacious decades of skin flicks. It's the true story of dirty movies, traced in elegant detail from the bizarre locations where these nudie shorts were screened to the ongoing legal battles fought by their promoters. And of course there are the stories of the innovators themselves, people who often risked their own security and livelihood to make these films, believing in some way that what they were doing wasn't a 'bad' thing - and that it could rake in some dough.


Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore
2010 · 1h 46m · US
Take an outrageous ride through this wild world of exploitation films with this thoroughly entertaining documentary, HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS – THE GODFATHER OF GORE! Featuring cult director John Waters, Drive-In Movie Critic Joe Bob Briggs, Herschell Gordon Lewis himself and a “cast of thousands,” you’ll witness the innocent bare-naked era of Nudie-Cuties before Lewis schocked the world with “Blood Feast,” the first ever gore film!


Bad Biology
2008 · 1h 24m · US
Driven by biological excess, a young man and woman search for sexual fulfillment, unaware of each other's existence. Unfortunately, they eventually meet, and the bonding of these two very unusual human beings ends in an explosive and ultimately over-the-top sexual experience, resulting in a truly god awful love story....


Basket Case 3
1992 · 1h 30m · US
Duane recovers from his delusional breakdown to find his freakish basket-bound brother Belial will soon become a father. But not everything is joyous as the once tight knit brothers no longer seem to trust each other.


Frankenhooker
1990 · 1h 25m · US
A medical school dropout loses his fiancée in a tragic lawnmower incident and decides to bring her back to life. Unfortunately, he was only able to save her head, so he goes to the red light district in the city and lures prostitutes into a hotel room so he can collect body parts to reassemble her.


Basket Case 2
1990 · 1h 30m · US
Duane and his basket-bound mutant brother are taken in by a secret home for wayward freaks.


Brain Damage
1988 · 1h 26m · US
Brian comes under the addictive spell of a parasite with the ability to induce euphoric hallucinations in its hosts.


Basket Case
1982 · 1h 31m · US
A young man carrying a big basket that contains his extremely deformed, formerly conjoined twin brother seeks vengeance on the doctors who separated them against their will.


Slash of the Knife
1976 · 30m · US
Parody focused on the horrors of being uncircumcised.