Frisk is a 1991 novel by Dennis Cooper

Dennis Cooper

Dennis Cooper is an American novelist, poet, critic, editor and performance artist.-Career:Cooper grew up the son of a wealthy businessman in Arcadia, California. His first forays into literature came early, focusing on imitations of Rimbaud, Verlaine, de Sade, and Baudelaire...

. In 1995, the book was made into a film of the same name

Frisk (film)

Frisk is a 1995 drama film, directed by Todd Verow, based on the 1991 novel by author Dennis Cooper. It is a first-person narrative about a serial killer. Dennis describes a series of ritual murders in letters to his sometime lover and best friend, Julian , and Julian's younger brother Kevin . It...

 directed by Todd Verow

Todd Verow

Todd Verow is an American film director who now resides in New York City, New York. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the AFI Conservatory. Together with his creative partner, James Derek Dwyer, he formed Bangor Films in 1995. He was also the cinematographer for Jon Moritsugu's...

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Plot summary

Frisk is narrated by Dennis, who had a troubled childhood. In 1969, aged 13, he was regularly allowed to read pornographic

Child pornography

Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...

 magazines and was particularly affected by snuff pornography

Snuff film

A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...

, even though he later learns that the pictures were faked. He recognises that Henry, now aged 17, was the 13/14-year-old boy portrayed in the pictures.

Dennis is gay and a drug-taker and is devastated when his boyfriend Julian leaves him to go off to France. Dennis takes up with Julian’s younger brother Kevin. The boy is psychologically troubled, yet 18-year-old Dennis involves him in drugs and starts a sexual relationship

Child sexual abuse

Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...

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In 1989, Julian receives a letter from Dennis describing how he embarked on a sadistic killing spree in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. The descriptions in the letter are explicit and the torture and sadism are described in graphic terms. Dennis then meets up with two Germans, tells them what he has done, and they join forces to commit a series of random, motiveless murders. One of the serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

’s most recent victims was an 11-year-old boy, whom they tortured before mutilating and murdering in Dennis’ home, a converted windmill, two weeks before the letter was written.

Julian travels to Amsterdam with Kevin to find out if the murders in the letters are true or just a cruel fantasy.