Doctor Hackenstein

Dr. Hackenstein (David Muir) is trying to resurrect his dead wife before her severed head totally decomposes. Unfortunately, the grave robbing couple he hired (Logan and Anne Ramsey, the latter from THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN) bring him male body parts. Hack gets a lucky break though when Melanie (Stacey Travis) and three of her cousins crash their car nearby. The doctor offers to let them stay, giving him the chance to pluck plenty of parts off their bodies.

It almost seems like destiny that I should see this movie. I gasped when the credits started with Vista Street Entertainment and shuddered in fear when I saw the "Executive Producer Jerry Feifer" credit. Yup, this is the first film from Feifer, who used this to get a foot in the industry to create the WITCHCRAFT films, a series of 13 movies of which I descended into hell to watch. Hell, the main location is even the familiar WITCHCRAFT house. Knowing my luck, I'll probably inherit it. Anyway, this is as polished as the first WITCHCRAFT and has the same video wipes. The acting is tons better with Muir and Travis being very capable leads. In addition to Anne Ramsey, you have Phyllis Diller pop up for one scene. Plus, you get some nudity (thankfully not from Ramsey or Diller) and semi-gory KNB effects work. Writer-director Richard Clark puts some effort into the 1912 setting. Unfortunately, he can't decide on a tone. Is it a comedy? Serious horror? Who knows? He gets points automatically deducted for including a "Dr. Hacken-steen?"/"No, it is it Hack-en-stiiiiiine" exchange. None of this is helped by an oppressively plucky score by Randy Miller, who also did the scores on WITCHCRAFT and WITCHERY.

Two sisters, their perverted brother, and their cousin have car trouble. They then happen about the home of Dr. Hackenstein whom conveniently needs the body parts of three nubile young women to use in an experiment to bring his deceased lover back to life. He tells them that he'll help them get home in the morning, so they spend the night. Then the good doctor gets down to work in this low-budget horror-comedy.

I found this to be mildly amusing, nothing at all to actually go out of your way for (I stumbled across it on Netflix instant view & streamed it to the xbox 360), but better then I expected it to be for a Troma acquired film. Most of the humor doesn't work, but their are still some parts that caused me to smile. Plus the late, great Anne Ramsey has a small part and she was always a treat to watch.

Eye Candy: Bambi Darro & Sylvia Lee Baker got topless

My Grade: D+

My review was written in December 1988 after watching the movie on Forum video cassette.

Even with a new name, you can't keep the Frankenstein monster down for long as "Dr. Hackenstein" present a pleasant sex-switch comedy spoof in the vein of Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein".

Pic is set in 1909 with David Muir as the good doctor, intent on bringing his wife (Sylvia Lee Baker) back to life with the aid of spare body parts. Chief victims are a trio of comely girls who stay the night at Hackenstein Manor after their car crashes.

With topless footage (a bit incongruous concerning the femme monster) and gore added, pic is still quaint with okay period atmosphere and plenty of black humor. Muir is effective, playing the role straight, while in the supporting cast the late Anne Ramsey acts opposite hubby Logan Ramsey as a pair of grotesque graverobbers.

Color scheme here is rather drab and film probably would have been more effective (though less saleable) in black & white a la Brooks' classic homage.

After crashing their car, sisters Wendy and Leslie (Dyanne DiRosario and Catherine Davis Cox), brother Alex (John Alexis), and cousin Melanie (Stacey Travis) seek refuge at the nearby home of Dr. Elliot Hackenstein (David Muir) - which is good news for the doctor, since he requires limbs and organs from three healthy young women in order to rebuild and reanimate the body of his dead wife.

Doctor Hackenstein was clearly modelled after Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator (1985), which injected the standard Frankenstein tale with nudity, humour and outrageous gore. Unfortunately, this film isn't wild or wacky enough to distinguish itself like Gordon's classic did, while Muir as the titular mad scientist makes for a very poor man's Herbert West.

For much of the running time, it's a bloodless and rather tepid affair, with very few laughs and only a touch of nudity courtesy of DiRosario as Wendy. The final act dials things up a notch or two, Sylvia Lee Baker as Hackenstein's stitched together wife showing us why Elliot is so keen to bring her back from the dead (she has a nice rack!), with a nice touch of the macabre as the sisters wake to find that they have been given the arms and legs of a man (provided by a pair of inept grave-robbers, played by Anne and Logan Ramsey), but it's definitely a case of too little, too late. The film needed to up the ante from the start in order to make an impression.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

This is far better than it has any right to be. But that's not to say that it is flawless. There are definite Vibes of both bride of Re-Animator and frankenhooker, but it does not come close to those films in terms of Gore, comedy, or overall sense of fun. There were a few jokes that got a chuckle out of me, and the little bit of Gore that is in it does look alright. Far from the worst thing the Troma team has ever distributed. But a far cry from what the typical gorehound or horror-comedy enthusiast would be expecting. I technically rate this of 5.5, but as Imdb doesn't count half's, I upped it to a 6.