Frankie Freako
Conor is a square. Conor is so square there could be high school geometry questions set about the sum of his internal angles and even the quarterback of the football team would know the answers. His beautiful but frustrated wife Kristina thinks so, telling him before she sets off on her trip out of town. His boss, Mister Buechler, also thinks so, saying the presentation he has been working on for the board needs spicing up.
Alone for the weekend, taking care of the household chores, polishing and dusting and making their perfect home that little bit more perfect, something snaps and Conor gives in to the temptation to shake things up, making the call to the hotline he saw advertised in the commercial break of his favourite antiques valuation television show, arranging a play date with Frankie Freako, the little gremlin who likes to party…
The latest strange film from the ensemble behind the features Father’s Day and The Editor and the shorts Chowboys and Forgotten Lake, a weekend of debauchery with Frankie Freako stems from the same outrageous comedy horror conception but feels toned down and reined in, family friendly when the whole point of the plot would seem to be the urge to break out of the confining beige walls of acceptable suburban complacency and live the wild life.
Written and directed by The Void’s Steven Kostanski, more recently the makeup effects lead on In a Violent Nature and currently working on reviving Deathstalker, throughout the film the puppets, prosthetics and animatronics embodying the titular Frankie Freako and his associates Dottie Dunko and Boink Bardo and voiced by Matthew Kennedy, Meredith Sweeney and Adam Brooks are second to none, but the technical expertise and showmanship float as untethered as the presentation on sector subdivisions.
Starring Conor Sweeney as Conor, he seems passive in a film which is dominated by his diminutive diabolical co-stars, never feeling as though he is being changed despite the unfolding chaos, with Kristy Wordsworth’s Kristina in a particularly flat arc and the devious Mister Buechler (also Brooks) showing more personality than either even when under a restrictive cocoon of glue, a good manager, supportive and understanding even when asking Conor to stop by the office at the weekend to shred incriminating documents.
Playing safe while acting as though it’s on the edge, Home Alone if the cast from Dead Air or Destroy All Neighbours had been invited in for beer and pizza rather than forcing entry, Frankie Freako is knockabout fun but even when it moves through the portal to the Freakworld of Lord President Munch which recalls the mad underworld of Henry Selick’s overlooked Monkeybone it is only an interesting idea whose potential never fully manifests, like Conor needing to let go and unleash the mania it harbours.
Frankie Freako will be available on digital download from Monday 14th July
