Helmar Augustus Cooper appears in Frankenhooker (1990), a film that exemplifies the outrageousness of 90s cult cinema. Set against a backdrop of horror and dark comedy, Cooper's role contributes to the film's distinctive narrative, which revolves around a man trying to resurrect his girlfriend with a bizarre twist. Though his filmography may be limited, his performance in this notorious title cements his place within the realm of exploitation cinema, showcasing the absurdity and creativity that defines the genre.
Frankenhooker
Jeffrey, a young man who lives in New Jersey, is a former med student but dropped out due to absurd and unethical experiments with bringing body parts to life using a formula he invented in combination with electricity. He is later heartbroken after his fiancée Elizabeth is killed by a lawnmower during a family cookout. He decides that the only way to confront her loss is to use his science skills to bring her back to life. As her body has been cut into pieces save for one of her hands and her head, Jeffrey must take new parts from other women in order to create a new body for Elizabeth. He ultimately chooses to harvest them from the bodies of New York City prostitutes, as no one would notice if they went missing. He feels guilty about the idea of killing them, and performs a surgical method using a drill to his brain to calm himself and go through with the plan. He lures them back into a hotel under the guise of a party but begins to back out of the decision to kill them with large exploding crack rocks. The hookers find the bag of drugs and begin using them much to Jeffrey's dismay. Seconds later they explode with Jeffrey having to rush to run away with the parts and escape the wrath of their pimp, Zorro. He uses the body parts to bring Elizabeth back to life, however her mind isn't fully restored and she speaks and acts like a prostitute. The newly revived creation escapes and begins looking for customers, who end up exploding after encountering her. Jeffrey goes looking for her and finds her at a bar. Unfortunately Zorro is there too, and upon hearing her mention his name and seeing his tattoo design on her arm he angrily strikes Elizabeth nearly knocking her head off. Jeffrey takes Elizabeth home to revive her with electricity, causing her to regain her memory and become furious about what she's become. Zorro has tracked them down and decapitates Jeffrey in an attempt to take Elizabeth back. However, the spare hooker parts were reanimated from the first experiment into a many limbed monster, which drags Zorro away. Wanting her lover back, Elizabeth decides to revive Jeffrey via the same procedure he used on her. When Jeffrey wakes up, Elizabeth tells him what happened, but since the process only works on female bodies, Elizabeth had to use the hookers' body parts to bring him back. Elizabeth happily says they'll be together now forever, with Jeffrey groaning in the same manner as the traditional Frankenstein's monster in horror at his new female body. A medical school dropout loses his fiancée in a tragic lawnmower incident and decides to bring her back to life. Unfortunately, he was only able to save her head, so he goes to the red light district in the city and lures prostitutes into a hotel room so he can collect body parts to reassemble her.
