WFG RATING: A

Lightbulb Entertainment and Shout! Studios presents a Raven Banner presentation of a Hangar 18 Films production. Written, directed, and edited by Steven Kostanski. Produced by Steven Kostanski, Melanie Murray, and Pasha Patriki. Cinematography by Pierce Derks.

Stars Conor Sweeney, Adam Brooks, Kristy Wordsworth, Rob Schrab, and the voices of Matthew Kennedy, Joshua Turpin, and Meredith Sweeney. 

From the director of Psycho Goreman and Leprechaun Returns comes this wild and demented film that can be described as “The Garbage Pail Kids” meets “Cat in the Hat”, in a crazy world.

Conor seems to have the perfect life. He’s got a great job as a pitchman and is nearly getting promoted to manager. He also has the perfect love life when it comes to his relationship with longtime girlfriend Kristina. However, he feels like something is missing. He’s not sure what it is. That is, until he finds a television ad for a party line called the Freako Line. He has some reluctance at first, but when Kristina goes on a business trip, he decides to call the party line.

Soon enough, Conor meets with the one responsible for the party line. He meets the freakishly-looking Frankie Freako, who has brought his friends Dottie Dunko, a female cowgirl; and the cyborg looking Bob. At first, Conor isn’t interested in partying and this results in the trio of freaks trying to kill Conor. However, once Conor realizes partying could be a good thing, they become friends. However, when Frankie learns Munch, the president of Freak World, wants him back, Conor finds himself in a world like no other and decides to do what it takes to help his new friends. 

The latest from Steven Kostanski is as fun as Psycho Goreman if not slightly better. Kostanski is the perfect filmmaker when it comes to meshing horror and comedy. Where PG had an alien controlled by a pre-teen girl and still manages to wreak havoc while ultimately becoming the hero the world needs, this one does a bit of a reversal in terms of human and non-human entities becoming an alliance. 

Conor Sweeney, who also serves as the story consultant, looks like a grown-up version of what Troll 2’s Arnold would look like today had he not been eaten by the goblins. Despite that, he seems to have the perfect life but feels it is somewhat humdrum. This is what leads to him ultimately calling the party line, a similarity to the 1990s phone ads with the infamous 900 area code. Kudos has to go to the SFX team behind the creations of Frankie, Dottie and “Shabba Doo” Bob as I call him. 

The looks of Frankie, Dottie, and Bob brings to mind The Garbage Pail Kids and even them being a distant relative of Street Trash’s resident eye candy Socko. A good portion of the film has Frankie and company making Conor’s life a living hell by pulling some dangerous Home Alone style pranks on him and nearly killing him on multiple occasions. However, once Conor realizes he needs to lighten up, he finally relents and this leads to the alliance that will be needed when Conor and crew end up in Freak World to face off against the very nasty Munch, who looks like something out of an 80’s cartoon. 

Frankie Freako is fun in a wild and demented way thanks to Steven Kostanski’s ability to mesh comedy and horror with some unforgettable characters in the form of our titular character and his crew! If you like Psycho Goreman, this should be one to check out!

Lightbulb Entertainment will be bringing this to the UK on Digital on July 14. In the US, you can see it now on Tubi, Prime, and other streaming platforms from Shout! Studios.