The market for independent films in the style of gritty exploitation features has been filled to the brim by amateur filmmakers who assume that a low budget look, lots of violence, a little bit of sex appeal, and edgy characters are a substitute for substance. Granted, those are the critical elements, but even with every box on the checklist filled, the performances, direction, and writing have to amount to more than a student film. Dead Hooker in a Trunk has archetypes instead of actual characters (and names them accordingly) and a story that never really goes anywhere despite having a fair number of people killed or interrogated in the protagonists quest to figure out the story behind the titular problem. It’s a really simple film, and if you’re a diehard fan of the exploitation or grindhouse kind of filmmaking, maybe you can content yourself with nothing much happening save for a few bits here and there. For everyone else it’s a tedious bore.
A drug addict, a psychopath, a geek, and a choir boy discover a dead hooker in the trunk of their car and, not wanting to go to jail, keep mum as they go about retracing their steps from the wild partying of the night before. To complicate matters, the hooker has a stash of drugs on her person, and the quartet soon find that while they’ve been searching for an answer to how the hooker got where she is, a group of violent gangsters has been looking for their merchandise. Can the ruthless behavior of the psychopath among them keep them alive as they try to get to the bottom of their mess? Or will the meddling of the group’s more righteous members sabotage their efforts and get them killed?
The single standout feature of the film is the acting, but even then it’s only good by comparison to the writing and the camera work. Overall Dead Hooker in a Trunk has student thesis film written all over it, and consequently production values are barebones. Some films can rise above that, but Dead Hooker in a Trunk will only do so if you’re a fan of the style desperate to watch another entry.
DVD Bonus Features
The basic deleted/extra scenes and behind the scenes interviews with the cast are the only extras besides the trailer.
"Dead Hooker in a Trunk" is on sale January 31, 2012 and is not rated. Action, Horror, Mystery. Directed by Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska. Written by Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska. Starring Sylvia Soska, Jen Soska, Rikki Gagne, Cj Wallis.
