Studio: Shout! Studios
Release Date: 11/5/2024
Rating: Not Rated, although I would say it falls in PG-13 territory
Film Grade: C
The Story: Conner is just another bland, corporate drone, plugging away at his vanilla job in the hopes of getting a much sought after promotion. At the end of the day, he returns home to his wife where they indulge in a passionate, sensual session of . . . holding hands. You see, Conner is what one might call a “square.”
While winding down from that exhausting exercise, he flips on his favorite show, Antique Connoisseurs, and catches a commercial for one of those tempting 900 numbers. This particular one features a weird little gremlin-like creature fondling the phone cord, as a woman’s sultry voice urges viewers to give Frankie a call and experience the party of a lifetime. Even after a night’s sleep, images of Frankie keep flashing in Conner’s mind the next day.
As his wife leaves for a weekend business trip to an art gallery, Conner makes wild plans for himself. He’s going to dust, vacuum, watch even more episodes of Antique Connoisseurs, and order a pizza. With cheese. As the evening stretches on, he sees that 1-900-555-FREAKO commercial again. Curiosity finally gets the best of him, and he makes the call, inviting Frankie and his Freako friends into his formerly dull life.
My Take: In the vein of Gremlins, Critters, Ghoulies, Munchies, and such, Frankie Freako is a shoestring budget entry that takes viewers back to the late 80s or early 90s era, when phones still had cords, and the internet wasn’t a thing yet.
Writer/director Steven Kostanski’s background is predominantly in special makeup effects, working on such films as It, Suicide Squad, Clown, Crimson Peak, and many others. On the side, he’s taken some of his own creatures and developed movies around them. Manborg was his earliest effort, while Psycho Goreman was made just prior to this one. With a miniscule budget of just $50K (that’s Canadian dollars, even!), this movie is quite the accomplishment. What the man lacks in budget he makes up for in creativity and ingenuity.
While Frankie Freako shows some interesting creature designs and fun action sequences (one clearly inspired by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), it also feels underdeveloped in both characters and plot. The sharp humor of Psycho Goreman has been exchanged for the much broader-based slapstick variety. Absurdity has been replaced by the formulaic.
Highlighting the cast is Conner Sweeney as Conner. His performance is reminiscent of a young Sam Rockwell, giving the character both a naïve innocence and an infectiously affable energy. Hollywood casting directors: this man deserves a break in a real full-fledged feature film. Adam Brooks perfectly embodies Conner’s boss, Mr. Buechler, even as the role takes an unexpected turn as the plot progresses. The Freakos themselves are a mixed bag. Some of the puppetry looks OK, but other scenes are (intentionally?) hokey, with sadly unremarkable voices.
And that’s really the biggest issue with the movie, it’s just a bit too vanilla, never taking full advantage of the absolute audacity of the situation. The Freakos’ backstory is underdeveloped, jokes are overly simple and hang longer than needed, and situations are resolved too easily. It kind of feels like a kid stretching out a book report just to hit a required page count.
The movie does shine in the silliness of smaller elements, such as the Freakos’ drink of choice, Fart soda. Or the graffiti sprayed on the walls that plays against expectations. Instead of harsh expletives, we get harmless things like “BUTT” and “vegetable.” And, even if the characters aren’t puppeted realistically, the designs are interesting, with some even rising to outstanding. In those instances, the film is a success.
Visuals: This is a really low-budget feature, and it shows from time to time in the video. There are noticeable spots with digital noise and others with lens artifacts. Once the viewer settles into the mind set of this being made in the spirit of those prior small films, they’re easy to overlook and ignore. Similarly, the special effects tend to be on the cheesy side, but that’s fitting and acceptable as tributes to the genre.
Audio: The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is front-heavy, with minimal use of surrounds. Dialog is easy to understand. The musical score has a rich variety of styles, from rock to lively pop, to orchestral adventure, but it doesn’t particularly stand out at any point.
Special Features: The behind-the-scenes feature shows a lot of went into making the movie. The commentary track is filled with details and stories of the shoot. If you like the movie and are interested in making-of features, they’re worth viewing and listening to.
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Steven Kostanski, Actor Conor Sweeney and Cinematographer Pierce Derks
- “Fasten Your Freakbelts” – Behind the Scenes of Frankie Freako
- “Conor & Frankie: A Conversation Between Actors”
- Frankie Freako’s Funtime Phone Commercial
- Antique Connoisseurs Segments
- Trailer
Final Verdict: For those that loved the goofy fun of low-budget creature films from decades ago, this will be a fun revisit to the spirit of those times. It shares many of those same elements, from creature design, to music, to montages and the inevitable chaos that ensues. A variety of old-school production techniques are used besides the puppets, including matte paintings and stop motion, that film lovers can appreciate.
Where it misses is that it doesn’t really do anything new or fresh with the story. The phone line element could have been used to greater effect. The background story could have been given more depth. The characters really needed some more development. While some gags are genuinely funny, others feel flat and stretched out. It’s ironic that a story centered around a bland man ends up feeling too bland itself.
If you’re looking for something goofy and different from the standard fare we’re seeing today and have had fun watching these kinds of movies, you’ll be sure to get some kicks out of this and I can recommend it as a watch. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments and my wife and I both found it entertaining, even if we thought it could have been wilder.
Fun Quote from Conner to His Boss: “I don’t get it. I went buck wild on this thing. I mean, some of this text is in red, for heck’s sake.”
My Review System:JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
Oppo BDP-93
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup
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