Donald Farmer has been around since the glory days of SOV horror, giving us films such as CANNIBAL HOOKERS and SAVAGE VENGEANCE back in the day. He’s kept up fairly consistent output over the years even if most of it went unnoticed. But a segment in HI-8 and SHARK EXORCIST got him noticed again. Now along with co-director Caroline Kopko, he delivers HOOKER WITH A HACKSAW
Kristen, played by Kasper Meltedhair who co-wrote and has been in several of Farmer’s recent films, is a phone sex worker who’ll do the occasional “date” for the right price. But when she has a close encounter with Raymond (Jason Crowe HARVEST LAKE, THE BAD MAN) and his group of snuff filmmakers, she’s out for revenge. Along the way, she finds romance with Ali (Colleen Herkert). The snuff crew makes Ali their next star. And Kristen goes after Raymond with the fury of somebody with nothing left to lose.
Some of the old SOV stars such as Todd Sheets have made a successful transition to modern filmmaking. Others haven’t done as well. Sadly Farmer seems to be one of them. SHARK EXORCIST and CANNIBAL COP were disappointments and while a bit better HOOKER WITH A HACKSAW still falls short.
The main problem is the script is just so disjointed and loaded with horrible dialogue that the film never has a chance. Kristen pretty much wanders from incident to incident with scenes of walking and driving padding the time between. She just happens to stumble on a guy beating up a woman, (in a mall parking lot where nobody else notices). Hardened snuff killers tie her up so badly she can wiggle her hands-free. And rather than hit her or use any of their torture implements/weapons they try to run away. You get the idea.
Linnea Quigley (BONEHILL ROAD, THE BARN) appears via some raunchy footage from an uncompleted film that looks to be from the 80s. And this brings up another issue some people will have with HOOKER WITH A HACKSAW. Kristen has a nude bath scene and a bottomless scene where she fakes sex with a skeleton. Both are shot so as to avoid even a flash of ass cheek. If you’re going to make an exploitation type film and have scenes like these, don’t get all coy. A large part of the audience expects to see at least a bit of skin and is going to feel cheated.
There is plenty of gore. But most of it looks like he’s using the same techniques he was using back in 1987. There are even intestines that look like sausages. That pretty much sums up HOOKER WITH A HACKSAW too. It would have fit in nicely with the SOV films of the late ’80s, early ’90s. But now it just feels like its way past its expiration date. Farmer has apparently shot a remake of CANNIBAL HOOKERS if he can’t pull that off, he needs to consider calling it a day.