Somewhere towards the bottom rung of the VOD circuit has to be a basement office where creative minds throw darts to decide on which two words are going to be smooshed together to give the latest Z-list creature feature its title. The handy thing is that most of the portmanteaus are entirely self-explanatory, with 2004’s Frankenfish very much one of them.
As if you needed any mysteries cleared up, the made-for-TV schlock-fest does indeed focus on ungodly experiments going awry when a monstrous genetically-engineered fish begins causing chaos in the swamps of Louisiana. With a trail of blood, guts, and bodies left behind, only a medical investigator and biologist can save the day.
To say that Frankenfish is awful would be entirely expected, but it’s so bad that things almost become endearing in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. There can’t be any chance that anyone involved was convinced they were making anything other than a flaming cinematic dumpster fire, so you have to commend and appreciate the effort that went into playing things with such a straight face.
In a left-field development, the barrel-scraping horror has even been mounting a comeback on streaming this week, with FlixPatrol revealing Frankenfish to be one of the most-watched features on the iTunes charts. Why? Honestly, there’s not a reasonable answer to be found anywhere, and it just leaves us wondering what’s next to be placed back under the brights lights and beady eyes of a brand new audience. Sadly, though, there was only one sequel.