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Although four years seems long in between projects, the team of Astron-6 deserves all the credit in a Steven Kostanski led movie, simply titled Frankie Freako. This movie shows just how wonderful puppet gore movies are. As much as I like to use the word puppetcore, that’s the name of a company who produce just as equally wacked out films. Also, they make mostly all puppet productions
When this film includes live-action as part of the equation, what’s presented is very Muppet-like, especially in how they move around the screen. But in this case, instead of revelling in slapstick, the concept delivers the horrific and humour in droves. The last film I saw was Frank and Zed.
That’s because somewhere in space, hobbit-sized characters who want to be like DC Comics’ Lobo insist that they bring their party anywhere in the cosmos. There’s a broadcast where the title character (voiced by Matthew Kennedy) offers to livin up anyone’s doldrum life. When Conor (Conor Sweeny) is an office employee with no gumption to succeed, not even his fellow workers seem to be fighting for inter-office promotions to get a better job. I suspect that before becoming such a Stephen Fry (from Futurama) he had not much of a social life. As for what his wife, Kristina (Kelly Wordsworth) saw in him back when they first dated, not even her sexual advances can stir him up.
When she goes out of town for the weekend, he decides to continue being boring. However, when that unusual infomercial pops up again, he’s too curious and before he knows it, awakens to find his home trashed! He has no memory of the last twelve hours and what happens next is just as whacked out as Zathura: A Space Adventure. All these retro FX applied into Frankie Freako works great to give this work an authentic 80s fibe.
Anyone who knows Kostanski’s body of work can expect the unusual. As for those entirely new to this subgenre, I call it next level Ghoulies. Or should that be Weird Science meets Puppet Master? I can’t decide since the characters here may well have been partially inspired by both works, and Connor acts almost like Anthony Michael Hall in the former work. Dottie Dunko (Meredith Sweeney) shares some mannerisms that make me think she dated Six Shooter once. Boink Bardo (Adam Brooks) is kinda like Pinhead, and the leader, Frankie–thankfully he’s an original.
Also, I’m fairly sure this writer/director also considered what to put into Frankie Freako after looking at his Garbage Pail Kids card collection. There’s a lot of work put behind world building, especially when the gang is forced to return to the world of Freak after getting captured. This act is very much the highlight of what a talented group of practical effects people can do, and I’m very much in love. Some of it looks like it came from a Kidd Video cartoon, and another is just Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom!
As for who defines the bad guy and what the conflict is, that’s a toss up. There’s not only Mr. Buechler (Adam Brooks), his supervisor, is determined to make Connor a scapegoat at work, but also himself. He’s not the man he once was. Much like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the question is ultimately how to wake up to smell the roses. His buddy, Cameron, is just as much of a square (an 80s colloquialism to mean boring) as Conner. And without that transformative experience to prepare either to take on the world, they’re just going to be taken advantage of. Sometimes being a rebel rouser is needed!
4 Stars out of 5
Frankie Freako Movie Trailer
