Fantasia 2024 Review: FRANKIE FREAKO, Steven Kostanski's Chaotic Puppet Adventure Is Freakin' Great!

A painfully bland office worker gets his world turned upside down by a trio of tiny cosmic weirdos in Steven Kostanski’s latest gonzo comedy, Frankie Freako. After hit cult comedy gold with 2021’s Psycho Goreman, Kostanski and his usual bunch of misfit miscreant co-conspirators are back with their version of an ‘80s puppet adventure movie. He lovingly borrows from the greats in this long thought extinct subgenre to create a gooey, chaotic, freaky family film with a twist. It’s everything you miss if you – like me – list Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College in your personal top ten of all time.

Conor (Conor Sweeney) is the most boring, milquetoast man who ever lived. He spends his days at the office trying not to get too carried away with his corporate presentations and his nights in bed by eight, maybe holding hands with his wife, Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth), if he’s feeling frisky. One night when she’s out of town on business, he comes across a commercial for a party chat line run by a slicked back little red party goblin named Frankie Freako (voiced by Matthew Kennedy), and decides that maybe it’s time to spice up his boring routine. He makes the call and immediately passes out when Frankie picks up on the other end. The next morning Conor awakens to his house in a complete shambles and discovers that Frankie and his two-foot-tall monster pals, Dottie (Meredith Sweeney) and Boink (Adam Brooks), have descended on the Sweeney household and partied it into oblivion.

With his wife coming home in less than two days, Conor and the Freakos have to try to put everything back together. It’s not going to be easy, and when these tiny agents of chaos face an existential threat from another dimension, Conor gets sucked into an intergalactic war that just has to wrap up before his wife gets home, or she’s going to kill him. Will Frankie and his friends step up and win the day, or is Conor doomed to a life of painful mediocrity? It’s up to them to make the choice, and Frankie Freako goes to some very bizarre places in the process.

Heavily indebted to the Ghoulies, Critters, and Munchies franchises that ruled a certain segment of coming-of-age horror comedy in the late ‘80s, Frankie Freako lovingly recreates an era that many filmgoers of a certain age grew up with. While the period perfect creatures certainly hit that nail on the head, there are also nods to films like Little Monsters, Drop Dead Fred, and if you squint hard enough, even a soupcon of the mysterious stranger masterpiece, Pasolini’s Teorema. Like Terence Stamp’s Visitor in Pasolini’s often imitated masterpiece, Frankie and friends insinuate themselves into Conor’s life to upend the toxic stagnation that threatens his marriage and career; only instead of sex, Frankie uses Fart Classic Cola, paint cans swinging from ceiling fans, and graffiti. To-may-toe, to-mah-toe.

Frankie Freako being a product of Kostanski’s imagination and with the help of several of his Astron-6 compatriots, though, this was never going to be straight homage, and Sweeney injects the film with the kind of absurdist, satirical flare that this crew has been honing for nearly two decades. Helping out in a supporting role as Conor’s Office Space-esque boss is another Astron-6 alum, Adam Brooks, who makes the most of limited screen time in a straight man role as Mr. Buechler (a tribute to Ghoulies Go to College director and special effects legend, John Carl Buechler) not unlike his recent turn as the dad in Psycho Goreman. Kostanski also enlists frequent collaborators Pierce Derks as cinematographer, and the great Blitz//Berlin as composers; both of whom really understand the assignment, with B//B in particular turning in an incredible mix of score and retro-cool pop songs that really ground this film in the universe of its predecessors.

Steven Kostanski has spent many years creating a niche for himself that is very hard to deny, to that end, he’s kind of a you-love-him-or-you-don’t filmmaker, and for those on the “love” end of that spectrum, Frankie Freako is exactly what you want it to be. Reverent without being slavish, Frankie Freako builds a brave new world of old school puppet wonder, and is perhaps Kostanski’s first real family-friendly creation, depending on the family, I suppose. Most of all, Frankie Freako is freakin’ fun! There is a playful nihilism that keeps the viewer on its toes, never quite knowing where the film is going, but eager for the journey. There’s no one out there making movies quite like Steven Kostanski, and if you loved Psycho Goreman and Manborg, you’re really going to love Frankie Freako.