In Steven Kostanski’s latest film, the worst thing that someone can call Conor (Conor Sweeney) is square.
The ’90s-set comedy horror movie revolves around an uptight married businessman whose idea of intimacy is holding *a* hand in bed and using a different color font in a work presentation. He’s married to Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth), a smoking hot blonde who clearly yearns for something more physical, and he works at a nondescript office delivering reports on sector subdivisions.
He doesn’t drink.
He doesn’t swear.
He watches a show called Antique Connoisseurs.
So yes, Conor is absolutely a dullard.
Everything changes when Kristina goes away on a weekend work trip and Conor’s opportunistic boss, Mr Beagler (Adam Brooks), asks him to come in so he’ll be caught on camera shredding incriminating embezzling documents. But before Conor goes down for a white collar crime, he’s triggered by the phrase “what are you: square?” on a recurring TV commercial for a hotline service called Frankie Freako. When he hears those words uttered by a hard-partying gremlin-like creature in shades (voiced by Matthew Kennedy), Conor calls the 1-900 number, agrees to the terms to party, and all hell is unleashed.
Kostanski is beloved by genre fans for his love of puppets and practical FX and make-up, both of which were readily on display in his last film, Psycho Goreman (2020). In a way, Frankie Freako feels like a slightly more child-like companion piece to PG, complete with a slight narrative and Kostanski’s proclivity for physical comedy, sight gags, and irreverent humor.
When Conor agrees to party with Frankie Freako near the end of the first act, cinematographer Pierce Derks pushes the camera in on Conor’s mouth and the action immediately jumps to the aftermath of a debaucherous evening. Conor wakes up, sweaty and dressed only in a tank top and boxers, to discover that his entire house is destroyed and he’s being terrorized by Frankie and his two partners in crime, Dottie Dunko (voiced by Meredith Sweeney) and Boink Bardo (voice by Brooks).
The creature work on the three Freakos is amusingly lo-fi and practical and it’s obvious that the film is heavily indebted to late ’80s/early ’90s titles like Puppet Masters, Ghoulies, and Gremlins. The Freakos are clearly hand-operated; they move like dolls, and they have eyes and mouths that move in slightly uncanny fashion (think: budget Chucky). Each of the three have distinct characteristics, such as Dottie’s gunslinger outfit and drawl, Frankie’s 90s-era rapper shades and gold necklace, and Bardo’s steampunk eye-glass and tendency to speak only in “shaba-doo”s.
Sweeney’s performance is appropriately histrionic for the “straight man” role, while the Freakos are provided with a backstory that broadens the scope of the world in the last act and renders them more than pint-sized antagonists. Brooks, meanwhile, is playing a variant of his Psycho Goreman character – the somewhat lovable doofus – and he’s dealt the wackiest fate of any character in the film.
The film is essentially an ode to learning to relax and be less uptight, with Conor representing yuppy work culture and the Freakos representing the repressed id required to achieve a balanced life. It won’t surprise anyone to learn that, by film’s end, Conor learns to chill out, to recognize the value of his relationship with Kristina, and to let go of traditional (material) notions of success and happiness.
It’s the little jokes, odd visual moments, and unexpected narrative beats that help the film overcome a fairly conventional plot. For some reason, the cola the Freakos love to drink is a bright green can of ‘Fart.’ Frankie turns into a full blown demon that spits fire when confronted with a cross. There’s an odd recurring gag where the real villain – ie: the Freako that our three freakos are actually on the run from – is romantically attracted to Conor, and at one point dresses him in eggplant purple tights and a V-harness top. There’s even a stop-motion sequence that evokes the mine cart chase from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Like PG, Frankie Freako channels a chaotic energy that makes for a breezy, easy to watch 80-minute film. It’s delightful, it’s silly, and it’s often extremely entertaining. If you yearn for a fun retro throwback to the era of Boglins, pay-per-minute infomercials, and beige yuppie suburban households, this is the film for you.
Frankie Freako had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival.
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