Title: A-BO The Humonkey
Year: 2008
Directed by Frankie Frain
Writers Frankie Frain Story and screenplay Jacob Sadeck Story Keith Sadeck Story Christopher Szulewski Story Nina Szulewski Story
Producers Frankie Frain ... producer Jonathan Hunt ... executive producer Nina Szulewski ... executive producer
Cast Alyssa Crisswell ... Jezebel Hoffman Alan Desmarais ... Derrick Snell/Arthur Duhl Jake Emanuel ... Ted Gillette Benjamin Fisher ... Willie Frankie Frain ... A-Bo/Topher Harris Jonathan Hunt ... Greg Pierce Lloyd Kaufman ... Ronald Weinberg Kurt Kroeber ... Hoffman Re-enactor Roberta 'Holly' Payne-Strange ... Bonnie Jon Ryan ... James Hoffman
Original Music Jonathan Hunt (original score music)
Cinematographers Doug Burgdorff (director of photography)
Editors Doug Burgdorff (co-editor) Frankie Frain
Make Up Department Mark Santos ... special makeup effects artist (special makeup effects artist)
Production/Distribution: Red Cow Entertainment

MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running time: 83 minutes
Official Website: www.abothehumonkey.com

In the small town of Mossyrock, MA, a half man, half ape (humonkey) was found in a wicker basket. Beloved and sheltered by his small town, A-Bo is transferred to Boston when a liberal college student decides it is his duty to obtain A-Bo's human and civil rights.

Like all very well written scripts, and Troma projects in particular, A-BO The Humonkey has a very simple premise. (If you don’t know what Troma and Lloyd Kaufman are, see my review on I Need to Lose Ten Pounds [2006].) It represents the sophomore outing for multi-hyphenate Frankie Frain. Second projects are usually the kiss of death for lesser filmmakers but Frain is more than up to the challenge. He succeeds in producing a masterpiece in low budget filmmaking. How low budget? Reportedly $1500.

Since his first project, Director Frain has attended film school and his education shows. The script is peppered with references to other films and he spoofs them with wit and style. There are even homage’s thrown in for good measure. Which ones? There were so many I lost count and would rather leave it to you to make your own list.

Producer Frain has taken a page out of sitcom television. Writer Frain, while taking sole credit for the screenplay, wrote the story as a team of five, which is not the norm in film. While he still wears four hats, including playing A-BO/Topher Harris—the main character, Frain’s collaboration and willingness to team up is evident in the finished product. Cinematographer/co-editor Doug Burgdorff does an excellent job mixing up the camera angles and Jonathan Hunt’s score adds to the storytelling. Kudos goes to F/X makeup artist Mark Santos for A-BO.

The humor is over-the-top, wicked, dry and biting. A-BO doesn’t take prisoners and spares no one. Without having to cow-tow to MPAA ratings, distributors, investors or political correctness gatekeepers, all sacred cows are up for grabs.

A-BO The Humonkey cries out to be seen by cinema, art history and humanities students. It incorporates themes from the work of early surrealist filmmakers like Luis Brunel but without the anger and ferocity. We have the shock, and humor, in the opening scene of A-BO chucking his feces at a professor, instead of watching a women’s eyeball getting sliced in Un Chien Andale (1928). Gothic themes are explored in the person of the neo-post-modern Prometheus—A-BO.

The Romantic art movement in its ideal of the ‘noble savage’ is explored and debunked. A-BO is not noble and his intellectual champion Ted Gillette (Jake Emmanuel) is not beneficent. Ted is narcissistic and only interested in A-BO as his thesis project. While his roommate Willie (Ted Fischer) is not really an anarchist, just a lonely freeloader hungry for order and family values. Willie doesn’t even have a last name, making him no less a caricature then that of the angry young man in the Billy Joel song of the same name. Then there is the slap at Progressivism in the person of the homeless Bonnie (Roberta “Holly” Payne-Strange) whom Ted takes in; finally, in homage to his “creator”, Frain even casts Lloyd Kaufman in his film as Ron Weinberg.

The DVD is very well produced. The extensive extras include a behind the scenes look at the making of the prosthetic for A-BO, commentary by Frankie Frain and casting sessions for Willie. “But wait, there’s more…” Ultimately A-BO The Humankey is a much nuanced, layered piece of filmmaking that is also biting social commentary at the beginning of the Twenty First Century. While it doesn’t flow or have catchy tunes like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975); it really deserves midnight cult status.

As for Frankie Frain, is there is a future for him in Hollywood? If the boys from Jib Jab could achieve fame and fortune, Frankie surely will (and don’t call me Shirley).

A-BO The Humankey needs to be viewed with friends and contemplated. You can buy it on the website at www.abothehumonkey.com Far surpassing anything that Lloyd has ever done; it still needs to be judged in his unique genre. FIVE TROMA-STARS.