FRANKIE FREAKO is the new one from director Steven Kostanski, who I started paying attention to when he did PSYCHO GOREMAN (2020). He’s Canadian and he’s part of this group called Astron-6 who also did MANBORG, THE VOID, LEPRECHAUN RETURNS and others. I’m gonna have to give those a shot. He was also prosthetic makeup effects lead for IN A VIOLENT NATURE, among other things. They got a fun scene going on up there, those Canadians.

This one is primarily the Astron-6 version of a li’l bastards movie like MUNCHIE or GHOULIES, but it’s also kind of a RISKY BUSINESS “party while the parents are away” movie, and also they work in some 976-EVIL – the kid whose parents are away summons a little guy called Frankie Freako by calling his phone line. Except it’s actually not a kid, it’s a sexually repressed adult man who does this while his wife is out of town on a business trip. The beginning part is lit like a noir-inspired erotic thriller and it plays like a dangerous foray into forbidden sexual desires or some shit. But it’s actually just funny puppets.

Conor (Conor Sweeney, MANBORG) is a stick-up-his-ass dork who thinks he’s a wild man because he used more than one font on a document at work. Hoping to get That Big Promotion he agrees to come in on the weekend to help his pony-tailed boss Mr. Buechler* (Adam Brooks, DARK HARVEST) shred some documents. An obvious frame up, but Conor is a fucking idiot.

The synth-heavy score by Blitz//Berlin (BROOKLYN 45) also drops some smooth softcore saxophone when Conor comes home to his wife Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth, THE SPY WHO NEVER DIES) and her silk negligee, but to her disappointment he only wants to hold hands. She’s clearly tired of him being such a joyless, soggy saltine of a person, so he calls the Frankie Freako hotline he saw advertised on TV. Turns out it doesn’t just play him a recording, it actually summons the little alien party animal (voice of Matthew Kennedy, director of FATHER’S DAY and THE EDITOR), along with his pals Dottie Dunko (Meredith Sweeney) and Crunch (Mike Kostanski). Dottie is a gunslinger with a bandana covering her face (a PUPPET MASTER homage I think), and Crunch is a cyborg who keeps saying “Shabadoo!” (and kind of looks like Agnes Varda?). Frankie is… maybe a demon? Dresses like a biker, has purple hair (including pointy goatee), shades and a t-shirt that says “Party King.” I heard Kostanski on a podcast called Spill Your Guts and he mentioned Andrew Dice Clay and John Travolta’s character in SWORDFISH as influences.

I think the movie’s biggest accomplishment is how well it captures that specific ‘80s/‘90s children’s entertainment way of depicting “cool” as a sloppy amalgamation of sunglasses, pizza, outdated biker/surfer/skater/rocker styles, using party as a verb, playing air guitar, carrying a boombox, etc. To me, just how stupid this guy looks is endlessly funny. He looks like the goblin cousin of Greaser Greg from GARBAGE PAIL KIDS: THE MOVIE, but it plays like we’re supposed to be desperate to make him like us.

So it’s kind of like The Cat in the Hat by way of Spuds Mackenzie with a monster who talks like Wolfman Jack and the most product placement you’ve ever seen for Fart Cola. (Or is that a made up product? No way to be sure.) Unlike PSYCHO GOREMAN it’s fairly kid friendly, or at least PG-13. Certain adults (me) will think it’s funny to see a movie where the ultimate act of reckless rebellion is a nerd spray painting “BUTT” across his own living room wall, while perhaps kids will just enjoy seeing the word “BUTT.” So it works on many levels.

I guess there’s one part that’s questionable for kid viewing – also one of the funniest ideas. SPOILER. Conor tries to stop them from going wild, one of the freakos is accidentally killed in the scuffle, there is a long scene of puppet mourning and the grim realization that he’s gone too far. You don’t usually get that in a GHOULIES or whatever. But that’s what cinema is about is journeying into new artistic territory such as tragic freako death.

Of course the biggest selling point is that it’s a very ambitious low budget FX movie with lots of hilariously goofy puppets doing silly shit – popping up on different shelves, swinging on ropes and ceiling fans. I could be wrong but it seemed to me like way more puppets than any of the PUPPET MASTER movies. And I really like that PSYCHO GOREMAN type humor where it seems to be one type of movie and then widens into something else. From this party house comedy it abruptly takes a right turn when we learn that the Freakos have in fact come looking for help because they’re the only resistance against their planet’s fascist ruler President Munch (Rich Evans, who I guess is the character Mr. Plinkett from the Red Letter Media videos people used to say I should watch). So they go to Freak World, a SUPER MARIO BROS. type dark dystopian cityscape where there’s a TEMPLE OF DOOM inspired mine cart chase done in stop motion.

I’m skeptical of ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia, but this is something different. The specific tone of pastiche/parody, very straight forwardly re-creating a terrible aesthetic and type of humor that was once appreciated non-ironically, feels almost like free basing the most absurd bygone tropes of the era. To me it seems like it’s sort of done lovingly and sort of done as brutal mockery and sort of without judgment, trusting us to know where they’re coming from without having to wink at us. It’s synthesizing heightened but fairly period-accurate bullshit mixed together in strange combinations. Another one of those movies that feels like it’s asking us, “Wouldn’t it be crazy if there was a movie like this?”

If I had to choose, I’d say I’m more of a Goreman Man than a Freako Freak. I liked both the crazy monster and the obnoxious human better in that one. It’s also just a more outlandish mix of two things I enjoy (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and THE TOXIC AVENGER). Still, this is an ingenious concoction of crazy puppet movie and ‘80s comedy with the soul of an after school cartoon ad break. I got some good laughs out of it.

Listening to interviews with the filmmakers, I learned that there was a delay on a different movie (maybe the DEATHSTALKER remake starring Daniel Bernhardt?) and they’d been marathoning little monster movies and also had been enjoying Youtube compilations of 976 numbers (I’m sure including the Freddy Krueger one that inspired a good joke in this). I didn’t remember this at all but there was an actual 976 number called Freddie Freaker that was a rubber goblin puppet:

As soon as I heard the song I remembered it. Anyway, they understandably wondered what the hell that was and who would call it, so they made a movie about it. Sometimes good art comes from wondering what the deal was with that one thing.

p.s. Props to the marketing team for having this narrator on the trailer:

*I rescind my usual disdain for horror movies with characters named after horror filmmakers in this case, because it’s pretty cool to homage the FX legend who directed TROLL and GHOULIES GO TO COLLEGE as well as working on DOLLS, DEMONIC TOYS and THE GINGERDEAD MAN.