It’s less than two weeks away now boys and girls! FrightFest the 13^th is literally just around the corner. So as we try and get ourselves and you, our loyal readers, pumped for the festival, I continue the feature Ian so brilliantly started when he looked at Federico Zampaglione’s duo of Shadow and Tulpa.

This time I’m focusing on the Soska sisters, whose second feature American Mary, plays on the Monday morning in the main screen. But first of all, let’s check out their now fan-favourite debut, Dead Hooker in a Trunk.

THEN: Dead Hooker in a Trunk

One of the very rare examples where a film’s title is basically its synopsis, Dead Hooker in a Trunk was the Soska sisters’ vision of the contemporary grindhouse. Made on a measly $2,500 budget and starring the sisters themselves in the leads, they unleashed their blood-soaked black comedy caper onto the world in 2009.

After a heavy night of drinking, Badass (Sylvia Soska) wakes up to her sister Geek (Jen Soska) asking for a ride so that she can see her friend (and crush) Goody Two Shoes (C.J. Wallis). Reluctantly agreeing to take her, Badass brings her best friend Junkie (Rikki Gagne) along for the ride. And It’s not long until the group begin to smell something nasty coming from their trunk. There they discover – you got it – a body of a dead hooker. Seeing how Badass and Junkie can’t remember the night before, and are unsure of their involvement, they hatch a plan to get rid of the corpse.

Although not a masterpiece of modern grindhouse filmmaking, Dead Hooker in a Trunk makes up for it with the excellent sense of fun it creates. Fans of horror since childhood, the Soskas are tuned in to the right frequency of gore and comedy. The script has its fair share of snappy dialogue proving they obviously know their audience incredibly well – most probably because they are that same audience.

The sisters knew the movie they wanted to make, and they did it in every way that their situation allowed. But like nearly every film with a miniscule budget, the lack of money can be seen and heard throughout. The audio is, at times, awful and they video is something that could be improved. However, what is even more evident than these shortcomings is a burning enthusiasm for the genre that as a lover of horror, needs to applauded and respected.

It’s nothing really all that original, but seeing this ‘paper and glue’ style, as well as the raw talent these girls have, Dead Hooker in a Trunk is a film that does what it sets out to, delivering gore, laughs and a hell of a lot of brutality along the way.

NOW: American Mary

The one thing the Soska twins showed us with Dead Hooker was potential, and even though the previous film was a decent outing from the pair, I believe the issue of budget meant that they couldn’t fully reach that potential. But with American Mary, and what looks like a bigger budget, this could well be the opportunity they need that puts the filmmakers’ on the horror map. Staying behind the camera on this occasion, which I think is a good choice, it allows the twins to properly focus on the story and not worry about anything else. And with film surrounding underground surgeries and body modification, they have a chance to take it into many dark and disturbing places.