Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009) * (out of 4) Badass (Sylvia Soska), Geek (Jen Soska), Junkie (Rikki Gagne) and Goody Two Shoes (C.J. Wallis) discover a dead hooker in their trunk and that's about it. The Soska twins directed, wrote and stars in this movie that seems to have gotten some pretty glowing reviews but I'm a little confused as to why because I found the film incredibly hard to get through. The film isn't a complete disaster so I'll start off with the only good thing. I think the vision of the film was actually quite good and it's hard to believe that this thing was shot for just a couple thousand dollars. I give the sisters credit for certainly having an eye because they've made this film look quite professional and that there is saying quite a bit considering how most low-budget horror films look. With that said, the rest of the film was pretty much dreadful with the story being the most annoying thing. I'm not really sure what the point of the film was except to come off like a Quentin Tarantino movie and mix countless genres together with quick dialogue, over-the-top violence and other bizarre matters. The problem here is that none of it works as the story never makes a bit of sense and the characters are all just annoying to the point where you're hoping they all die. The movie has one drawn out sequence after another and sometimes we get some graphic gore but more often than not it's just dialogue full of F-bombs. The performances aren't the greatest in the world but they are slightly better than we typically see in this type of picture. I know many are calling this a "terrific homage to grindhouse pictures" but I found the film to be far from that. I guess people will have to make up their own minds but while the Soska girls show talent here, the final result is quite horrid.

The Soska sisters are two of the more interesting characters working in horror today... identical twins with a seriously twisted outlook on life who have thus far written, directed, produced, and starred in several shorts and two full length indie movies, Dead Hooker In A Trunk (2009) and body modification horror American Mary (2012). Suitably impressed by the latter, I felt compelled to check out their debut feature; sadly, Dead Hooker is nowhere near as an accomplished effort, being yet another weak Tarantino-style grind-house homage that wants to be both ultra-cool edgy thriller AND over-the-top splat-stick, but which ends up simply being a mess.Jen Soska plays 'Geek', a bible-thumping church-goer; Sylvia plays her sister 'Badass', the yin to her yang, a tattooed bitch in a tight black vest who refuses to take crap from anyone. Together with 'Goody Two Shoes' (C.J. Wallis), Jen's virginal boyfriend, and crap punk-rock singer 'Junkie' (Rikki Gagne), they are thrown into a world of chaos and violence after the discovery of a dead hooker and some bags of cocaine in the trunk of their car.While I admire the Soska's for their attitude and obvious enthusiasm, I cannot bring myself to praise what is very clearly the work of naive newcomers; behind the admittedly nifty title lies a poorly written wreck of a film with embarrassingly bad dialogue and some truly terrible acting, not least from the sisters themselves. The action meanders aimlessly from one frustratingly logic-free scene to the next, the characters making ridiculously bad decisions, shrugging off severe (and probably fatal) injuries, and somehow developing incredible fighting skills along the way. About the only real fun to be had is with some cheap and cheerful OTT gore.Thankfully, American Mary suggests that Jen and Sylvia have since honed their writing skills and are now happy to appear in cameos, leaving the main roles to real actors. A wise decision ladies.

Yes, that is the title.I went in blind on this one and let me tell you how glad I am I watched this. This is an indie horror/action movie that screams "soon to be cult classic" written all over it. Mark my words, Sylvia and Jen Soska are completely on their ways to stardom. Another prediction like that I made was after seeing "Bad Taste" by Peter Jackson. No one believed me then, but I am sure they do now. So the first full length feature film by the twisted twins is here. This movie starts out with a couple kids witnessing their mother shot, and one of the kids shoots the assailant. Fast forward to adulthood with the twins and their "friend" head out on their routine drug pickup, only to discover a dead hooker in the trunk after a long night of partying. Unsure if they did it or not, they decide to dump the body. This little plight adds the geeky sisters bible thumping boyfriend along for the ride. This leads the group of 4 onto a trip through hell that includes all forms of mayhem and violence involving crooked cops,chainsaw wielding gang members,a sadistic serial killer, the list goes on. To say this movie goes over the top is an understatement, and for having no budget, it is astounding. Taking a page out of Carlos Gallardo and Robert Rodriguez's book by making a movie by doing everything yourself, be it, writing, directing, producing, editing, starring, and probably more. The nice touch was Carlos Gallardo appearing in a cameo as G-d in the movie as well. The whole movie moves at a "what the hell will they do next" pace which leads to a ride of a film that you won't soon forget Gore, guts, blood, all plenty of and done with the b-budget crafting perfectly so it isn't distracting by looking fake. And none of that cgi BS used as well. The acting was there to move from scene to scene and i don't think the twins were shooting for any Oscars either. The scenery is basically local areas of Vancouver, so not much to be said there. The story is straight forward and definitely original. I wouldn't be reviewing if I just spouted all the good, the continuity of this film has some issues. Almost to the point of distracting. I won't point out my major gripe there since that would be a spoiler but you will know it when you see it. And trust me, this is a movie you want to see, especially if you are interested in knowing about some soon to be big names in cinema. Scroll down a few messages for a link to their production studios site and see what else is coming up. I have to rate this accordingly without my bias of just how much I loved what they pulled off, and that is a 6.2/10 IMDb 4.2 This is a big descrepancy which I expected, but not everyone appreciates a true grindhouse horror type movie and this one delivers ! Don't pass it up. Bonus, strange quirk such as "Bad Taste" had since in that movie there was NOT a single female. In "DHIAT", I noticed I had just watched a movie that not a single character had a name.BTW, Happy Birthday, Soska twins, today you are 30.

Dead Hooker in a Trunk is set in Vancouver and starts as the academic Geek (Jen Soska) gets a text message from her friend Goody Two Shoes (CJ Wallis) who needs picking up from Church so Geek gets her sister Badass (Sylvia Soska) to pick him up, together with the drug addict Junkie (Rikki Gagne) the four discover that a dead body has been left in the trunk of Badass's classic Thunderbird, Since none of them know how the body got there they decide to bury the it in the woods but a growing list of coincidences & adventures make this tougher than they expected. From Cowboy pimps to serial killers to drug deals gone bad to bodily dismemberment it's a day neither of the two sisters will ever forget...This Canadian production was written, produced & directed by the Soska twins who also star in it, to be brutally honest the two look quite cute & seem nice enough on screen & I do feel a little guilty for saying this but I really didn't like Dead Hooker in a Trunk that much at all. The script is a total mess that can't decide what it is or what it wants to be, like other's have noted Dead Hooker in a Trunk feels like a road film as the majority of it has the four main character's driving around into & out of various situations but they never really have any purpose or meaning & there's no great significance to anything they do. There's some exploitation elements with some cheap gore including someone having their arm ripped off but then simply sewing it back on & someone else having their eyeball knocked out but simply putting tape over the empty socket & again carrying on as if nothing had happened, there's some sex & nudity & attempts at comedy & humour which fall mostly flat & the script also throw's in various bizarre subplots that go nowhere like drug dealers, a serial killer with a split cock, a Cowboy pimp & a meaningless twist at the end. The character's are alright, some of the things they do just don't make sense, why not call the police when they find the body? Why not even bother checking she was dead? Why think nothing of killing a guy just because he was carrying a baseball bat? Why not try & find out who the hooker was & how she ended up in the trunk? Come to think of it how did they know she was a hooker anyway? At almost 90 minutes the pace is OK & it moves along at a decent rate but I couldn't get into it, there just didn't seem to be much of a story here so much as one loosely connected incident after another. The script feels like a collection of ideas strung together with no real connection, nothing seems to drive the story forward & the individual moments aren't that great anyway.Obviously low budget Dead Hooker in a Trunk looks alright to be fair, it's not a visual masterpiece but it's competent enough. I can't say the look of the film appealed to me that much & the low budget does show at times, at one point the story starts after it's been raining & the ground is wet but shortly after the ground is covered in snow. The effects vary, there's some guts, some blood splatter & a few ripped-off arms but none of it stands out & it's quite flatly shot. The character Badass reminds me of a girl I know who really does deserve the name Badass, she is full of attitude & doesn't take any crap from anyone including me, in fact she hits hard & has given me two black eyes for being cheeky...Filmed in Vancouver in Canada this looks OK & has reasonable production values, I have certainly seen worse looking films. The acting isn't great but again considering the nature of the production it could have been worse. The two Soska twins are probably the best thing about Dead Hooker in a Trunk, they look to be having fun I suppose even if I wasn't. Sorry girls.Dead Hooker in a Trunk is an oddity, it's an exploitative road film that never really feels like anything. The story is all over the place, the mixture of genres is done seemingly at random & it's not even that nice to look at, I suppose I didn't hate it but at the same time I didn't like it either.