Frankenfish |
  • USA • 2004 • 84m •    • Directed by: Mark A.Z. Dippé. • Starring: Tory Kittles, K.D. Aubert, China Chow, Matthew Rauch, Donna Biscoe, Tomas Arana, Mark Boone Junior, Reggie Lee, Noelle Evans, Richard Edson, Muse Watson, Steven Ritzi, Ron Gural. • Music by: Ryan Beveridge.      A series of brutal attacks in the Louisiana swamps leave the local police mystified. Sending in a coroner originally from the area and a biologist to investigate, they learn that a group of genetically engineered Chinese snakeheads are responsible. The fish chase the investigators upstream, where the fish trap them on a houseboat with several other locals. Meanwhile, a group of big-game hunters track down the fish. It all boils down to a fight for survival with the voracious predators slowly picking off the humans.
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SPOILERS
Bayou police are baffled at a series of murders done in the local waters. Medical Examiner Sam Rivers, (Tory Kittles) believes the culprit is a bull shark and takes to the waters to prove it. Along with Wildlife Agent Mary Callahan, (China Chow) he sets off into the river to investigate the most recent deaths of the victims. This proves to be helpful, and the search leads them closer to the truth, but they are still pretty far away from solving it. Despite being warned away from the swamp, the two head deeper and find an abandoned fishing boat. Existing the ship, Mary finds a giant fish scale on the bow of the ship. Another attack sends them running away. A secret organization is searching for the same boat and head off to go find it. As Sam and Mary try to find out what the scale belongs to, a fish attacks the houseboat. Deciding to make a run for it, the fish attacks anything that moves. After a brutal series of attacks, the organization arrives and reveals the fish to be a genetically engineered species that they have been hunting for sport. Teaming up together, they try to make it out of the swamp alive.
The Good News: For being a cable-TV production, I couldn't believe how graphic this was. 'Frankenfish' might be the goriest of the channel's film, and gives gore hounds plenty to drool over. Amputations, dismemberment's, and decapitations are simply some of this film's more gory moments. The most violent death is not a human killing, but is the death of the father or mother of the fish, I can't tell. Having it's face chewed up by a fan from a swamp boat for a long period of time is easily more violent than anything scene in the theaters any time soon. Combined with the other extra-gory deaths, all combined to create a violent film. One of the highlights of the film has to be the killing of the hippie woman. The genius of this scene is how it's carried out. There are at least three instances where you think she'll be killed before the actual death, which has to be seen to be believed. The best parts come when you least expect it. The fish attacking the houseboat, the aforementioned deaths of the hippie couple, and the realization of what kind of fish is killing everybody is truly highlights of the film. A great part of the film was the very long and exciting sequence is the attacks on the floating houseboats. This whole sequence, about ten minutes long, kills off more cast members in this sequence than the rest of the movie combined. Filled with shocks, surprise deaths, and jump after jump, this could be the part of the film that makes up for a letdown after the joyous opening few minutes. I also wanted to say that the fish are very realistic-looking. Their movement and design, which is a major high-point as they are quite scary looking, are impressive and both mechanical and CG-generated integrate flawlessly and are very hard to tell the difference between. The beginning of this movie is really creepy. Starting on a fisherman checking his traps and finding one elusive trap, he sets off after it and when he is in reach, he grabs for it, then gets pulled under and is never seen again. True, it could've been played out longer, but the whole scene works and packs a beautiful wallop for an opening, hooking you in and delivering a very memorable scene. For me, though, one of the best things about this movie is that it had a pretty large African-American cast, but it didn't fall into the stereotype of having them curse up a storm. I can stand language, but it was a nice change of pace to see, and hear, that.
The Bad News: After the first few minutes of the movie and until the attacks hit, this can be a pretty boring movie. Nothing really happens for that span except for a few false scares and dialog. Also, this movie is really short, less than an hour and twenty minutes. Granted, tons of stuff happens in that time, but the film should've had a few longer sequences packed into it.
The Final Verdict: As a TV movie, this is one of the better films and is miles better and more realistic than big Hollywood film released in theaters (Van Helsing?). It will appeal to gore-hounds, as well as those who want to see a great little killer fish tale that won't require too much of you to be entertained by it.
Review by slayrrr666 from the Internet Movie Database.
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