The Bride of Frank

THE trash masterpiece; an absolutely unconventional, idiosyncratic, hilarious ode to the working man. Unlike anything you'll ever see; I can guarantee that. If you're into the films of Troma, Harmony Korine, Takashi Miike, John Waters, and Giuseppe Andrews, this should be right up your alley... The first scene in the movie is a little girl getting clubbed with a metal pipe and her head rolled over and then Frank eating her brains. Let's not forget a scene with a 90 year old man knocking someone's head off and defecating down this guy's throat. If all this sounds awful to you, then you may want to avoid. But I was laughing through every scene.

The whole thing is filmed really stylishly, with some psychedelic visuals, a bizarre and evil score, and some of the funniest and weirdest actors I've ever seen in a film. I especially love one actor who juggles and sings opera while confronting Frank.

Highly recommended. One of my all time favorite films.

Years ago, prior to its release on DVD, I spent months trying to track down this film. Finally, a friend mailed me a dub of this low-budget film. I watched it and couldn't believe it didn't have a distributer. Thankfully, times have moved on.

The film itself is very low budget. It's like cut-price Troma (crossed with early John Waters) and would appeal to the same audience. Originally, videos were available from the director's own site at a reasonable price. I'd also been informed that the film was recently "filmlooked" to remove signs of its video origins. The version I viewed was, however, a copy of the original release.

The film tells the tale of Frank, an ageing warehouse worker who lives in an office with his cats and desperately seeks female company. Frank was taught at an early age that it's okay to kill people for being annoying as long as you give them warnings first. Thus, there's quite a high body count in the movie including some very bloody (but fake looking) deaths.

The film uses some real characters to add authenticity to the proceedings and so some of the acting is less than an Oscar winning standard (Chick Carter has to be seen to be believed!).

Some of the film borders on adult territory (there's use of some prosthetics that you wouldn't see in mainstream releases) but it's good, dirty fun (if you aren't shocked easily).

Part horror, part comedy...this is worth tracking down if you like your horror cheap and cheerful.

I for one think "The Bride of Frank" deserves its new-found life on DVD. It's a party movie (like "Story of Ricky") and like it or hate it, you won't easily forget it......

An homage to the workingman disguised as an exercise in sickness and depravity. Filled with biting humor and priceless genuine characters. I've seen my share of no budget gross out flicks and they all sucked. Bride of Frank is proof that a talented person can produce something riveting with a camcorder, a few locations, and a troupe of 'common people'. Although technically very rough (shot on video) the movie is more creatively photographed than a lot of other higher-budgeted fare. There are other flaws, but not worth mentioning. This is a must-see.

The silliest of movies, the horniest horrors. Terrible acting & lack of actors is what makes it really stand out, if this was full of Channing Tatums and Megan Foxes it would be horrible. But it's not.

It's a wonderful story involving a homeless person taking residence in a warehouse and all the scary and sexy shenanigans that ensue. If I could change anything about this movie I wouldn't. If I were to say anything more specific it would take away the amazing surprises lurking around every corner. You have to take the leap yourself and watch this passionate, artful, cinematic, classy movie. Tits.

I worked on The Bride of Frank and if memory serves, I was present during the shooting of every scene. Whether or not you like this movie obviously depends on your taste in movies - some love it, some hate it. But please don't expect it to be anything it's not. The people who deride BoF for its production values just don't get it.

The original idea for the project was that Steve Ballot, the writer/director, wanted to shoot a movie that combined the sickest things he could think of, and use the various characters in and around the Newark warehouse where he worked as his actors. The plot, as it was, merely stitched these scenes together. Most of it was shot on weekends. Steve usually sketched out the dialog and storyboarded the scenes on Friday night, then we shot them on Saturday.

We used the best equipment we could get at the time, high-end consumer and low-end professional analog video and audio gear of the early 1990s. It's easy to make a great-looking amateur movie now, with HD and digital editing available to everyone for next-to-nothing, but back then it was almost impossible. Steve spent a lot of time trying to figure out ways to, for example, save one generation of tape in the editing process. That it looks as good as it does is a near-miracle.

Those who see this as some sort of sad exploitation of Frank are dead wrong. I can promise you that Frank had a fantastic time making BoF. He used to spend his weekends sitting alone in the warehouse watching TV (exactly as depicted in the movie). Shooting BoF got him out on the weekends, gave him a lot more social contact than he was used to, put a lot of great food in his stomach (Steve paid the actors mostly in good lunches), gave him the chance to touch women's breasts and asses, and gave him the chance to be revered and loved for exactly who he is.

Trash BoF all you want, but this cheap little movie was released in the U.S. and eight other countries. It played at festivals in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Italy, Switzerland, and England - and those are just the ones we know about. Frank came along for most of these, and after the movie screened people would go up to him and greet him like he was Clint Eastwood.

Sadly, many of the people involved in BoF have passed on, including the director. If I may speak for him, let me say to all his detractors ... well, nothing he would have to say to you would be printable. And it would all be correct.