The art of puppetry is complex and time-consuming. While normally relegated to children’s programming, puppetry has the capacity to accomplish things that simply are not possible with live action. Puppets do have their moments in horror movies, mostly as some form of tiny villainous entity, but rarely are they the full focus of a feature rated above PG.
Enter Frank & Zed: the feature film debut of Jesse Blanchard and his studio Puppetcore Films. Their puppets may look straight out of Henson Studios, but make no mistake, this is no Muppets movie. Blanchard and his lead puppeteer Jason Ropp set out to make a blood-drenched, puppet-centered fantasy horror and they succeeded with flying colors.
Outside of the last half hour, the film is surprisingly very narrative-driven. The story splits between Frank and Zed’s domestic partnership in the ruins of an old wizard’s Gothic castle and the village that suffers under the impending payback of a curse to end the aforementioned wizard. The entire setting feels like a blend between an old Universal monster film and The Dark Crystal: the former for the village and the latter for the giant castle housing the titular duo. Frank is a lumbering creation of the parts of the wizard’s victims and Zed is his zombie companion. Despite having no dialogue outside of Frank’s grunts and Zed’s teeth gnashing, it’s obvious the two care about each other. Frank feels a sense of duty to support Zed because of his role in Zed’s creation and Zed is willing to help with Frank’s increasingly high maintenance to the point where he puts his own health on the line. Though they’re both absolutely disgusting monsters externally, all in all they’re some of the most human characters.
Simply due to the sheer number of villagers, most of whom were based on Kickstarter backers, they have very little development in comparison to Frank and Zed. The standouts are the quartet from Blanchard and Ropp’s first collaboration Shine that play the Statler and Waldorf color-commentator role and Johnny the Bartender (Johnny Huang) who brings a certain level of Chad energy to the village. Despite the character development lacking in comparison to the titular duo, when push comes to shove in the orgy of blood as more and more of the village succumbs to zombification, there is a distinct tension and hope that at least some of the villagers will walk away unscathed. The villains, warlord Shadowbooth (Aaron Booth) and the priest (Randolf F. Christen), are cookie cutter as far as fantasy villains go, but watching them die in the finale is satisfying nonetheless.
When Frank & Zed finally gets gorey it goes all the way. The prophesied “orgy of blood” mentioned in the opening is taken quite literally with the sheer scale and variation akin to that of Dead Alive or Ichi the Killer. Blanchard’s modus operandi of “practical when possible” combined with the all-puppet cast allows for an indulgent, fantastical explosion of blood and guts. Highlights from the bloodbath include: a zombie missing the top half of its head slurping the eyes out of a man’s head, a man ripping apart a zombie’s skull and smashing its brains, and a gnarly decapitation courtesy of Frank resulting in a geyser of blood. The orgy of blood allows for several homages to gorefests of decades past like early Peter Jackson works. Blanchard himself stated that there’s a subtle Army of Darkness callback at the behest of a Kickstarter backer. Sam Raimi’s influence also manifests in a zombie arm, like in Evil Dead II, crawling around and strangling the daylights out of people.
For a deranged muppet movie, Frank & Zed has more to offer than just the blood geysers and brain devouring. The relationship between two lonely servants of evil left to their own devices is incredibly heartwarming, which makes their fates so much sadder. The counter-balancing of the unconventionally tender relationship with the Dungeon and Dragons-style campaign of the village ending in the final act’s bloodbath creates an engaging, multi-faceted viewing experience from start to finish.
