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When the all-puppet horror movie Frank & Zed premiered in 2020, its production length was already part of the story.
The film had taken seven years at that point, born of zealously DIY practical effects: felt monster design, gallons of artificial gore, hand-built castle sets, clouds brewed in saltwater tanks and puppet mobs brandishing real torches.
Then, a twist. Despite positive reviews across Frank & Zed’s film festival run (from Nightstream to Fantasia), director Jesse Blanchard decided seven years wasn’t enough.
Better make it 13 and counting.
“It’s art…I don’t know…when is art done?” the director asks with an incredulous smile. He now hopes to finish filming Frank & Zed—again—this spring.
Unsatisfied with the 2020 version and unconvinced that a premiere was a binding act, Blanchard and his crew returned to the lab and kept refining.
“If we make a good movie, it’ll all be worth it,” Blanchard says. “So let’s just make a good movie.”
Today, the premise of Frank & Zed remains similar: two half-verbal zombies sustain a codependent relationship in their decrepit castle. Frank brutally hunts cute forest critters for Zed to devour. In turn, Zed charges Frank’s artificial heart so they can do it all again tomorrow.
“I wanted to make something really, really gross as sweet as possible,” Blanchard says of the film’s central relationship.
Other characters, though, needed work. Blanchard thought the nearby villagers, who attack Frank and Zed’s castle, had “eluded” him in the original version. They lacked humanity, Blanchard says, something that dawned on him after becoming a parent.
Moreover, he just felt the film “could be more fun.” This version features smoother editing and narrative balance.
But that doesn’t mean Frank & Zed has gone soft. It’s still howlingly, wonderfully revolting, climaxing in an orgy of blood comprising 350 separate shots. The production—which hasn’t lost a single crew member, much to Blanchard’s delight—is now filming in its third studio space, big enough to aim for grander “exterior” shots in this final version using mirrors and hanging miniatures.
As the production winds down for the second time, Frank & Zed is still raising money on Patreon and has garnered an Instagram following of 125,000-plus.
Now spanning nearly one-third of Blanchard’s life, the project is as hard to sum up as any 13-year era in a person’s existence.
“Relentless, I guess,” the director says. “It’s infinite. Ever-giving, you know? Generous.”
