Frankie Freako!

They advertise late at night on the kind of channels nobody expects to bring in more than a handful of viewers. In between the home décor and gardening shows that are little more than ads themselves, the tragic life stories and disease-of-the-week freak show filler: call this number and change your life! Obscure religious cults promising salvation, women over 50 who would like to get to know you better, the previously untold secret to making millions, and much, much more unlikely wonders could be yours. It’s all a bit much for a habitually unadventurous yuppie who only tuned in to watch antique shows – but when Conor sees such a number advertised by little red goblin Frankie Freako, he is somehow unable to get it out of his head. When his wife goes away for the weekend, he just has to call.

A little monster movie from Psycho Goreman director Steven Kostanski, Frankie Freako! lacks the driving energy of some of his earlier works but still packs in plenty of mischief and mayhem. Once Conor has brought himself to Frankie’s attention, he’s not going to get rid of him easily. Frankie likes to party, and what’s more, he’s brought his friends. Soon Conor’s orderly life has been turned upside down, much like his neat suburban home – and that’s before he has to reckon with the fact that Frankie is on the run from a tyrant on a far off world who will stop at nothing to destroy him.

With Conor’s sleazy boss Mr Buechler (Adam Brooks) also caught up in the action, and soon finding himself in a sticky selection, it’s up to the dorky hero whose special skills extend to little more than sector comparison and basic IT to save the day – despite the fact that he’s been battered about the head, shot, spoken to using some distinctly immoderate language and even talked into consuming caffeine.

Plot-wise this sticks closely to formula but there’s lots of fun along the way. Kostanski does much of his own model work, which here extends to creature creation, and each one of his latex characters is wonderfully realised in a tradition that will delight genre fans. The wealth of in-jokes is supported by perfectly timed deadpan comedy, and everyday American absurdities provide an equally fruitful source of humour. Survivalist paraphernalia stored in Conor’s home is not put to use – it seems unlikely he’d be up to it – but speaks to the context of his life every bit as much as flamingo pink walls and the ugly white plaster ‘sculptures’ that his wife makes. The attention to detail here is just as important as in the glimpses we get of Frankie’s former home.

The challenge of putting a film like this out there is that it will inevitably be compared with the Gremlins films, and that’s a high bar to reach. Frankie Freako! has its own distinct atmosphere, however, warm hearted and, in its own warped way, very much about the traditional values of family and friendship. Like Kostanski’s previous films, it has a heavy metal score that fits it perfectly, and if the destruction is entertaining, just wait until you see the repair job. A natural crowd-pleaser at the Fantasia International Film Festival, this may not be up there with the classics, but it provides plentiful entertainment nonetheless.