Studio: Shout Studios
Director: Steven Kostanski
Writer: Steven Kostanski
Producer: Steven Kostanski, Melanie Murray, Pasha Patriki
Stars: Conor Sweeney, Adam Brooks, Kristy Wordsworth
Review Score:
Summary:
An ordinary man has his boring life turned upside down after calling a party hotline that summons mischievous gremlins who destroy his home.
Review:
Picture a person with the harmlessly milquetoast personality of Ned Flanders, except he looks like a former frat guy who became a slick car salesman, even though he doesn't exhibit any of those associated traits. That's Conor Sweeney, the character, not the same-named actor playing a presumably fictionalized version of himself. He doesn't drink caffeine. His favorite TV show is an "Antiques Roadshow" clone where every piece ends up being worthless. It isn't even clear if he knows what sex is, since he gets exhausted from holding hands in bed while his lingerie-clad wife Kristina rolls her eyes in bemused frustration.
With his boss Mr. Buechler, a fitting homage to FX icon John Carl Buechler, calling his office presentation "bland" and Kristina calling him a "square," Conor could use a jolt of excitement to break out of his boring box. Despite his wife reminding him what happened when he did something similar with a Freddy Krueger phone number, Conor seeks out some much-needed life spice by calling a 1-900 hotline for Frankie Freako, a Garbage Pail Kid-like gremlin who promises a wild night with the ultimate party animal.
Conor gets a whole lot more than he bargained for when Frankie teleports through the phone along with two mini-monster companions, gunslinging cowgirl Dottie Dunko and Boink Bardo, a Madballs-style cyborg who says "sha-ba-doo" the way Groot says "groot." More than mere mischief makers, these three freakos not only trash Conor's home, they destroy Kristina's sculptures, shoot Conor in his neck, and booby trap the basement. All that comes before choking Conor with a noose while he's forced to watch a video revealing how Frankie, Boink, and Dottie come from a planet where a ruthless overlord stopped their species from rightfully partying by enslaving everyone using laser-firing little Terminators.
Potential viewers need to know two things about "Frankie Freako." The first is that the film was created by writer/director Steven Kostanski. Part of the defunct Astron-6 collective that also included Conor Sweeney, Kostanski may be best known for horror-comedies like "The Editor" (review here) and "Psycho Goreman" (review here), which are very much in the same '80s-inspired vein as "Frankie Freako." If you're familiar with his sense of humor and retro style that replicates video store vibes from forty-year-old films, expect similarly irreverent fun from goofy visual gags and snark-laced lines like, "You look like a movie star? Which movie star? Gary Busey."
If none of the above means anything to you, know this instead. For monster kids of a certain age, "Frankie Freako" is the "Ghoulies" spinoff we never got, a Full Moon feature like Charles Band used to produce before he zeroed out his credit and credibility, and a charming chunk of cheddar that taps into the warm, fuzzy, and fugly feelings that make many of us nostalgic for the crude creature features of our youth.
Only three actors have title cards since much of the movie only involves Sweeney interacting with the three primary puppets, all of whom are amateurishly animated, intentionally and amusingly. Even though I was enjoying what amounts to a series of "Home Alone" setups where madcap mishaps explode into cartoonish chaos, I had a sneaking suspicion "Frankie Freako's" deliberate B-movie cheesiness would remain economical with just a couple of menacing muppets trashing Conor's suburban home for an hour. Then the film pulls a surprise out of its sleeve by teleporting everyone to the freakos' colorfully grim home world for an even wilder romp where stop-motion miniatures pile on more outrageously absurd adventures.
By this point, you should have a reasonable idea if "Frankie Freako" sounds like something ready to roll its bonkers ball up your alley. It certainly isn't intended for anyone who doesn't have an affinity for midnight movie mayhem from a time when it was par for the course for low-budget, humorous horror to be rough around the edges, and rough in the middle for that matter. "Frankie Freako" is entertainingly silly in a "smart" way, if you catch my drift. If you're not prone to laughing at larks like a faux ending that winks with the failed catchphrase, "I guess you could say things got a little freako," then this might not be your preferred type of party.
Review Score: 75
There’s nothing overwhelmingly “wrong” with the movie. There’s nothing overwhelmingly original about it either.