ROCK & ROLL FRANKENSTEIN

Produced by Sean O'Hara, Steve McLaughlin, Scott Machens
Written and Directed by Brian O'Hara
Director of Photography - Jay Hillman

King - Graig Guggenhiem
Frankie - Jason Spence
Bernie - Berry Fetterman
Iggi - Hiram Jacob Segarra

Is it possible for a movie to be so right because it's so disgustingly wrong? Naysayers really need to check out Brian O'Hara's ROCK & ROLL FRANKENSTEIN, it's proof of just how funny perversed bad taste can be.

Bernie needs a hit moneymaker soon. His latest musician just flaked out and he's tired of dealing with so-called artists. Bernie's med student nephew, Frankie, recently thrown out of school for copulating with corpses, convinces his uncle that it's possible to reanimate dead tissue and create the perfect musician.

In theory, the boyish good looks and country boy naivete found in Elvis' head, the natural playing talent found in the hands of Hendrix, and the sex appeal brought on by Jim Morrison's legendary Johnson could provide the perfect combination for a band's frontman. In theory, that is.

To enjoy the movie, we have to forget that traits such as talent and charisma all stem from the brain. Those outward physical characteristics are just the items we've come to associate with a person's internal appeal.

Like it's source material, R&RF deals with the same themes of alienation and creation found in Mary Shelly's source material. Director O'Harra pushes those themes into far darker territory by allowing the individual body parts to shine through and represent the creature's dementia. With Mary Shelly's original story, it was an abnormal brain that created such confusion in the creature. With R&RF, it's an abnormal Johnson that does the damage. I guess it's true what women say, all men are slaves to their Johnson.

Instead of feeling isolated due to people's reactions towards his hideous, combobulated looks, this time the creature is adored by those around him. He is, after all, the lead in an extremely popular band, and there isn't a singer alive who hasn't had his pick of groupies at one time or another. No, this time it's the creature's sexual identity that's in question. While the head, hands, and heart all scream heterosexuality, it's the Johnson and its "unnatural urges" regarding men, gerbils, and dingle berries that screams for supremacy, and the brain of Elvis doesn't know what to do about it all.

As the creature, Craig Guggenhiem does a bang-up job playing the conflicted Elvis. All shy and timid, he approaches the character like he were the younger Elvis, before he was warped by the fame and fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. It's his strict Christian upbringing that's at odds with the urges coming from an organ whose true source wasn't Jim Morrison, but Liberace. To make the little creature happy, the big creature is willing to experiment with his softer side to see if it's really the true him.

The DVD sports a gorgeous transfer full of vivid, rich colors, along with an anecdotal commentary from O'Hara and various cast and crew. You'll also find a music video from the King's band, Unnatural Urges, along with a trailer vaults from Shock-o-Rama and Seduction Cinema, making this the best disc yet from Shock-o-Rama.

Now, I wonder what O'Hara could do with Dracula or The Wolf Man...

Rock & Roll Frankenstein
Shock-O-Rama