KING FRAT (1979)
Directed by Ken Wiederhorn
Televista DVD
THE FILMS
My wife thought it was like seeing a little kid's drawings of Animal House. I thought it was like Animal House if it were made by 12-year-olds who only saw parts of the film because they had to keep clicking away when their Mom walked in the room. Joe threw mud in the middle of our living room right after the Fart Contest.
All these opinions regarding the Beauty of King Frat are valid.
It's time to spend 90 minutes with Grossout, Jock, Chief Latrine, the smart guy, the new guy, Griselda the blow-up doll, the dean, all the Preppy Boys and a guy nicknamed Hemorrhoid. It's King Frat time. The best Animal House rip-off ever. Hands down. It is 90 minutes of incoherent insanity that is actively vile at times, laugh out loud funny at others and always charmingly bewildering.
There's a really vile fraternity house in Yellowstream University. Grossout is the de facto leader and he loves farting. All sorts of assorted nutballs float around one of the filthiest series of sets I've ever seen. Every room in their frat house is worthy of a tetanus shot. Watching Grossout cook or "take a dump" (in the films' parlance) is pretty gross. Teaching the new kid how to puke right is maybe grosser. I did appreciate the "falling window while urinating out of it" joke, direct from Tristram Shandy, circa the 1760s.
King Frat starts like an Animal House rip-off with all the elements falling into place. Do I need to name them? All the ones you can think of...and then suddenly it goes on a very large tangent involving the First Annual Fart Contest, which Grossout seems a shoe-in to win. How does it turn out? I won't ruin it. But, suffice it to say, when the contest is over, there's still a lot of film left.
And now...we're confronted by the Animal House parody that we all thought this was going to be, except it comes at us in strange bits. The dean wants them shut down. The preps are jerks. The "Good Guys" steal an important Preppy statue. There are sexual shenanigans. A giant brawl. A trial....and it's all put together in such a, well I want to say, haphazard way that it's astounding.
The first half hour is goofy and filthy. The second half hour is Farting. The third half hour is insane.
What a movie. It's like they threw in every stereotype and gross joke ever...and forgot to make us care about anyone. When the end rolls around, I didn't care if the frat was closed down or stayed open because the filmmakers didn't care if I cared about these guys. Are they underdogs? I couldn't really tell. Just because you're living in your own filth doesn't mean you're an "Underdog". The Prep Frat is kind of jerky but we barely see them do anything. And, the "good" frat is so filthy, I can't imagine spending ten minutes there.
And yet, the movie succeeds by being the greatest film ever made. This is not hyperbole.
We loved it. But, we don't know why. More viewings.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Looks kind of skuzzy. Sounds loud and raucous. There is no other way.
EXTRAS
A series of "Slides" that look suspiciously like a bunch of screenshots.
FINAL THOUGHTS
All right, not the best film ever. But, God, this insane film is a joy to watch. Whether it's for all those gross jokes, the vile Production Design or the lopsided and mad structure of the whole thing, I experienced great joy while watching this movie. So did Joe, apparently. Just ask our love seat.
— Dan Budnik, 08.26.10 |
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