Frankenfish
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| Frankenfish | |
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| Directed by | Mark Dippé |
| Produced by | David Hillary |
| Written by | Simon Barrett, Scott Clevenger |
| Starring | Tory Kittles, K.D. Aubert |
| Music by | Hot Wheelz |
| Distributed by | Columbia-TriStar |
| Release date(s) | 2004 |
| Running time | 84 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Frankenfish is a 2004 creature horror movie dealing with genetically engineered fish in the bayou. The film was inspired by the snakehead fish incident in a Crofton, Maryland, pond.
Contents |
[edit] Story
The movie begins with an old fisherman pulling up tasty looking crabs from the riverbed. He notices the buoy bobbing and gets dragged in a flash. He is quickly reduced to a bloody stub. The situation is so odd that Mary Callahan, a biologist from the Department of Wildlife, and Sam Rivers, a medical examiner originally from the area, are sent into the deep bayou to investigate the death. Mary suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, is now wearing a bikini. The thriving backwater community of floating houseboats consists of old fishermen and a hippie couple. They find the wife of the deceased fisherman, who is a kind of voodoo seer, and her daughter Eliza. The wife tells the investigators that a boat washed ashore a few months ago and ever since then, strange things have begun to happen. For instance, Eliza has somehow been working as a paralegal despite being a five-hour boat ride from anything resembling civilization.
Their guide, Elmer, takes them to the boat. The crew is identified as Asian (due to the cuisine choices still strewn about the cabin). The smell from the rotting corpses in the hold causes Mary to vomit over the edge of the boat. The fish is attracted to vomit and when Elmer accidentally falls into the water, he is immediately consumed. The boat begins to transfer a signal to some Chinese who are connected to some wealthy bounty hunters.
Back at the boathouse village the locals eat some dinner with the newcomers. One of the hippies hears a noise while hitting the bong. When he goes down to investigate and leans over the edge, the fish leaps up out of the water and bites his head off. They soon realize that the fish attacks anything which moves. The fish capsizes all the boats and when they try to use the dead hippies’ houseboat they realize the only things in it are bongs. The nearby Vietnam vet uses a large hook baited with an entire catfish and lands one of the frankenfish. He shoots the fish in the head with a shotgun, killing it. He falls into a fit of craziness and rips the heart out of the killer fish and puts it on the grill. In the middle of eating the heart (in honour of his fallen comrades), another fish jumps up and eats him. They realize that the fish can breathe out of water and must have a vestigial lung.
The voodoo lady suggests that it’s a monster, and that it is not the work of nature or the voodoo faith. Mary has an idea on how to get off the boat. However before she can say anything she is shot by the house. "THE HOUSE SHOT HER" says Dan. The fire also sends a burning propane tank into the hippie's boat house, blowing it up and sending Eliza into the water. Sam dives in and rescues her; however a fish eats half of her mother. Meanwhile, back in Russia, talk of revolt begins to spread amongst the peasants. A blind priest cringes. The fish begin to sink the house boats causing extreme distress among the survivors. The boats don't completely sink and the poaching group shows up and is quickly knocked into the water. The main hunter explains that the fish are genetically engineered snakeheads. They are a delicacy in China and one step further than genetically engineered salmon. He says that he did it because it’s something no one has ever seen... or hunted. Sam and Eliza and Eliza's sleazy lawyer date, Dan, have no choice but to go with the poacher and his partner to hunt down the remaining beast.
The crew follows a trail of blood from the wounded fish back to its den. Sam and the two hunters enter the den to retrieve the fish. The two hunters are quickly dispatched by a fish at least twice as large as the ones previously encountered. Dan, Sam and Eliza quickly leave on the fan boat and are chased by the huge frankenfish. The fish is eventually diced into tiny pieces by the fan boat propeller after a short chase. However, during the chase Dan is thrown from the boat, and at the end of the film is shown lying in the mud, being consumed by a mob of tiny frankenfish.
[edit] Soundtrack
No One Can Hide, performed by Hott Wheelz, is the credit song with the memorable lyrics: this thing's a giant pirahna/that's why I won't put one foot in the wata
[edit] Complete Cast
(in credits order)
- Tory Kittles .... Sam Rivers
- K.D. Aubert .... Eliza
- China Chow .... Mary Callahan
- Matthew Rauch .... Dan
- Donna Biscoe .... Gloria Crankton
- Tomas Arana .... Jeff
- Mark Boone Jr .... Joseph
- Reggie Lee .... Anton
- Noelle Evans .... Bobbi
- Richard Edson .... Roland
- Muse Watson .... Elmer
- Steve Ritzi .... Pilot
- Ron Gural .... Coroner/Sheriff
- Eugene Collier .... John Crankton
- Sean Patterson .... Abrams
- Raoul Trujillo .... Ricardo
- Marco St. John .... Chief
