Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)

   
Produced & Directed by: Fred Olen Ray

Written by: T.L. Lankford & Fred Olen Ray

Starring:

Jay Richardson ... Jack Chandler
Linnea Quigley... Samantha
Dennis T. Mooney .... Harrison
Michelle Bauer ... Mercedes
Esther Elise ... Lisa
Gunnar Hansen .... The Stranger
Michael Sonye .... Jake the Bartender

Special Appearance:


Jimmy Williams ... Bo

Release Date: Limited Theatrical: March, 1988

*Images courtesy at: www.badmovies.org

 

 

 

Rating:

 

A sleazy private eye dick named Jack Chandler (Jay Richardson) is on a case to find a young runaway named Samantha (Linnea Quigley) who is possibly in the rough streets of Hollywood and can be involved with some prostitutes as well as working as a stripper at a dance club.
He goes to a sleazy strip club where he encounters the head hooker of the bunch named Mercedes (Michelle Bauer) in which she tries to come on strong to him. Then suddenly Jack realises that he's in a trap as these hookers hack up their clients with giant chainsaws as the bar is also responsible for this.
He also encounters their pimp called the Stranger (Gunnar Hansen) who has terrifying news for him as he tells him that he will be their sacrifice for their cult chainsaw ceremony to summon up their master that no one knows about.
Samantha tries to rescue Chandler as the two of them try to put an end to their madness yet they are caught up in the middle of all this mess once again and Samantha is forced by the Stranger to perform at his cult ceremony.

 

Fred Olen Ray is trashy with his work as usual making it very slaptick and tongue in cheek and trying to blend it in with the horror but he doesn't make any of the scene's scary at all. But this was noted to be his best work (Which says very little) and a fave to his fans.
We do have a neat and cheesy beginning with a chainsaw prostitute being questioned while she's smoking a cigarette and then activates her chainsaw as this looked impressive for a start on a comedy horror flick on chainsaw prostitutes.
Good cheesy shots on Jack Chandler typing away with his hands as well as smoking a cigarette trying to get a report done while he's narrating too.
There is an interesting and corny and campy discussion between Mercedes coming onto a supporting character named Bo acting lustful in a bar with good shots on the Stranger staring in a dark room and Jake the Bartender watching at what they're doing.
We have a nice moment with Mercedes feeling up Bo in a hotel room while playing some Elvis type music and then stripping down dancing and placing up some plastic paper on the walls. Then she tells him to close his eyes as this leaves an impression that she plans to do him in. Next we have a great shot on Mercedes holding a chainsaw and then going wild with it. Nice cheesy gruesome bloody effects when she hacks this client up as this will please people who love the horror films for it's trashy cheesiness. A perfect dark shot on the Stranger staring in at a hotel window looking satisfied.
There's a corny conversation between Jack along with Harrison by questioning the prostitute that we spotted in the beginning of the film about a missing murder case. Looked way too tongue in cheek confusing fans wondering if this is a straight dark comedy or a comedy/horror.
We do have an interesting moment to make up for the previous scene when Jack and Harrison looks at some chopped off fingers along with a prostitutes purse.
We have yet another corny discussion this time by Lisa towards supporting character Hermie in which these moments looked way too over the top.
There is some great sleazy posing by Lisa while holding a baseball bat by having her pictures taken and then we have a nice shot on her coming up to the camera and swinging the bat.
There's a perfect camera shot looking up on Lisa in a bathroom near a tub while activating her chainsaw and then going in to do her nasty deeds. Then we have a great outside shot on the Stranger watching this amused.
There's a good lusftul discussion with Jack sitting at a strip bar smoking a cigarette with Mercedes talking to him and wanting to seduce him.
We have a great lustful shot a chainsaw prostitute pulling down her top and then tearing off Jack's shirt while he's tied to a bed along with Mercedes.
We spot numerous conversation sequences between Samantha and Jack which looked awfully terrible especially when they make out.
There's some fairly descent conversations with Mercedes and Lisa laughing evilly and talking against Samantha and Jack on what's going to happen at the ceremony.
We spot some perfect camera shots at the cult ceremony mainly performed by the Stranger along with a nice and serious standing moment with Mercedes watching and keeping guard.
A nice shot on Samantha holding two chainsaw's in each hand and performing a dance.
There's a good shot between Samantha and Mercedes battling each other with a chainsaw although the choreography looks slightly sloppy.
A great angle shot on Samantha holding a chainsaw gritting her teeth.
Bottom line: When I knew about Gunnar Hansen being in this flick I was hoping for a Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the city but what did I get??? An awful kooky flick with terrible plots.
The sound of the story is better than the film itself.
It was hard to judge at first whether this was a dark comedy or a comedy-horror. Well it's a slapstick comedy and horror blended together and not the least bit scary either as the plot was way too trashy and goofy. There was another movie as goofy as this titled Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama but that one was a bit more fun to watch but not that much.
The budget was made on
$23,000 which is really nothing and apparently only had a limited theatrical release in it's hometown of Los Angeles as lots of films start off that way in their local area as a premiere and sees if it gets picked up in other regions and if not it goes right to video as this was just what this one did.
At least it wasn't just direct-to-video and looks good for those drive-in type movies too so I can't totally slam this film as it has the odd interesting touches with these meancing chainsaw prositutes and the cult ceremony too but other than that the rest is a total bore.
I rented this along with Creepozoids. Both of them were bad Linnea Quigley flicks but Creepozoids was a tiny bit better but yet a near plotless film like this one.

The acting is quite bad but some of it looks so bad it's good. B-film cult scream king and Fred Olen Ray favourite lead actor Jay Richardson (Jack Chandler) seems put do okay with his role as a tongue in cheek sleazy chainsmoking private eye dick detective but yet this part is more suitable for a plain comedy. In a certain scene he doesn't look believeable when he passes out after he takes a drink at the bar.
Scream queen Linnea Quigley (Samantha) who played a runaway was not at all convincing in her role andis less convincing with her stuck up attitude too. However, the fans loved her in this film.
This was the film that made Michelle Bauer (Mercedes) a scream queen since she was in a handful of other trashy type T&A low budget horror films to add to her credit and continued getting more work in horror films directed by Fred Olen Ray and other direct-to-video low budget movie makers too. Although I was never wild about her as an actress she seemed to fit the role as the head chainsaw prostitute quite well with her sleazy attitude as this can very well be her best performance too. Fans remember her for this movie the most.
Esther Elise
(Lisa) nicely pulls her part off well as another chainsaw prostitute showing a good bad ass attitude and looks perfect for the part to top it all off. Seems to do well with her tough attitude.
Gunnar Hansen
(The Stranger) was better off as Leatherface as he was silent in that film and just acted menacing with a chainsaw. In this film he couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag as he just says his lines with no character at all. His role was the pimp to the chainsaw hookers (Typical). In a certain scene we spot him by having a hokey discussion as he tries to be dark and cold against his fellow actor as it doesn't work well at all when he is told that he is going to be a sacrifice for his chainsaw cult ceremony. However he seems to look good while speaking to his fellow actress while handing her a chainsaw to perform a sacrifice.
Michael Sonye
(Jake the Bartender) was very corny in his supporting role as a bartender and never went too far with his career but was famous for his voice work as the Imp in another tongue in cheek horror flick with just as much skin titled Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama.
We have him doing some sort of a performance during a chainsaw ceremony which looked too trashy.

This is a T&A galore
Michelle Bauer
dances around a hotel room stripping down from top to bottom fully naked.
Bit part actress Susie Wilson is topless bare breasted lying on a bed.
Esther Elise
exposes her breats while having her pictures taken acting lusftul with a baseball bat as well as hacking up her client with a chainsaw.
Linnea Quigley
takes off her top while stripping at a nightclub.
Tricia Burns
takes off her top while making out with a victim tied up.
A woman (I think Esther Elise) is bare breasted at a chainsaw ceremony while doing an act with putting flames in her mouth and blowing out fire.
Linnea Quigley
is topless again with body paint on her while doing a chainsaw dance ceremony and battle.

Fake looking blood and body parts are being splattered everywhere when a chainsaw prostitute hacks their clients up
Mercedes gets cut open by a chainsaw

There's some neat cheesy echoey piano playing which suits this low budgeter as well as some great adventurous synthesizer and beating sounds during the cult ceremony as well as for the ending credits too which was composed by Michael Perilstein who also composed for another trashy cult horror film in 1983 titled Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn.
We have songtracks as well mainly performed by The Fugitive Kind who did an awesome score for the opening title credits as the song was called "Baby So Long"

Mercedes: Jack
Jack Chandler:
Yeah!?
Mercedes:
I'm going to fuck your brains out!

Mercedes: Samantha.... How you disappointed the Master
Samantha:
Fuck off you slut!