Frankie Freako may be the wildest cult film of 2024
Making a great film is quite a task. But making a great “bad” movie is a bigger challenge. Steven Kostanski has made the big bad movie his calling card: no one elevates trash to treasure like the Canadian FX makeup expert turned director, whose ability to transcend pastiche and expand indie budgets into full-fledged spectacle in films like Manborg And PG: Psycho Goreman should put him in a league with the likes of Licorice pizza director Paul Thomas Anderson. However, that will never happen: the masses do not respect the cheese here!!
And that’s fine. But for those who get it: Kostanski’s latest film, Frankie Freakois another twisted, crazy odyssey full of dolls, slime and… FREEEAAAAKO-ING OUT, MAN. 2024 isn’t necessarily the ideal time for a mashup of Ghoulies And Garbage bin Children with a touch of bad comedies from the 80s, but with his retro horror comedy Kostanski suggests that it might always the right time for something in this vein. If Beetlejuice can make a comeback in 2024, there’s room in moviegoers’ hearts for Frankie Freako, a mischievous gremlin man who wears a leather jacket and loves to boogie and crush cans of fart soda.
Frankie Freako Kostanski regular Conor Sweeney plays Conor, a classic ’80s yuppie who’s been so worn down by office life that he can’t satisfy the sexual needs of his sculptor wife Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth). When Kristina leaves town for weekend work, the quirky schlub quietly stays home to dust the CD rack. Those plans are interrupted by an enchanting advertisement for the services of one Frankie Freako. Knowing deep down that he needs the shock of a self-proclaimed “Party King,” Conor summons Frankie with a simple phone call to 1-900 – and immediately regrets the decision. Together with two of his fellow freakos, Dottie Dunko the cowgirl and Boink Bardo, who says nothing but “Sha-ba-doo!”, Frankie wreaks havoc on Conor’s house, in an elaborate rampage that Kostanski stages as live action. Whac-a-Mole.
Kostanski could have been satisfied with business as usual Critters and the joys of bad horror movie dialogue with Frankie Freako. Sweeney knows how to follow the cadence of every schlock actor he attacks Mystery Science Theater 3000and Kostanski’s script provides him with groan-worthy one-liners that make a knowing audience laugh. The set pieces of the rampaging freakos are at once familiar and extraordinary: as Conor’s house is destroyed, every bit of vulgar, graffiti-sprayed profanity or vandalized wall art seems perfectly placed and in character. While Wes Anderson’s attention to detail is easier to spot, the Frankie Freako The production design team is equally determined to dazzle viewers with every frame.
But Kostanski isn’t satisfied with a ninety-minute one-note joke. After chasing the freakos around a bit with a gun, Conor learns an important lesson in why the freaks are so damn freaky – and he’s soon transported to Freakworld to face the Freaklord Munch and his battalion of mechanical freako killers . Through a mix of lo-fi CG and grotesque latex creations, Kostanski sends Conor through Freakworld, a cartoonish nightmare landscape that resembles Ralph Bakshi’s animation come to life. The background feels grungy and alive, in a way that movies cost 10 or 20 times their budget (we’re talking about). Beetle juice Beetle juice…) never do.
That craft, combined with wailing guitar and an ounce of world-building, is uplifting Frankie Freako from pure parody to a hybrid subgenre of real merit that Kostanski actually owns. At a time when horror can feel like a studio executive’s dumping ground for cheap work and attempts at genre-bending may make less business sense, it’s exciting to see a director like Kostanski bankrupt on an absurd note and execute with equal seriousness takes. as Ridley Scott would do in a historical epic.
In a way, it’s the Frankie Freako way: no half measures. Only crazy measures.
Frankie Freako debuts in theaters on October 4.