When John Crankton (Eugene Collier) is killed, the chief (Marco St. John) sends medical examiner, Sam Rivers (Tory Kittles) to investigate. Biologist Mary Callahan (China Chow) from the Department of Wildlife and Fishery takes him out to the bayou, where the accident happened. From photographs of the body, it is determined that some animal killed the man, but what they can’t tell. The bite marks don’t match an alligator’s or any other known creature in the Louisiana swamp. In the same area they find the head of a rather large alligator. The head appears to have been bitten off.
While in the swamp they run across Elmer (Muse Watson), a local resident of the swamps. Elmer lives on a houseboat and knew John. Elmer takes Mary and Sam to a small community of houseboats where John used to live. At the tiny flotilla of houseboats they meet John’s wife, Gloria (Donna Biscoe), his daughter, Eliza (K.D. Aubert) and Eliza’s boyfriend, Dan (Matthew Rauch). Other boats are home to Bobbi (Noelle Evans), Roland (Richard Edson) and Ricardo (Raoul Max Trujillo).
Gloria tells Sam and Mary about a fairly large fishing boat that was deposited upriver from a hurricane. She says that, ever since, some strange things have been happening in the swamps. Elmer agrees to take them to the boat. They inspect it. Sam verifies that the boat is in running condition. He then finds some dead bodies in the hold. Sickened by the sight and smell Mary loses her balance and knocks Elmer into the swamp canal. Something under the water pulls him under and kills him.
Sam and Mary flee the area not realizing that they turned on a homing device that notifies a gang of criminals that work for a bounty hunter, Jeff (Tomas Arana). Sam and Mary wait at the houseboat community for daylight so they can leave. The frankenfish creature decides to expand its territory. It follows Sam and Mary to the houseboats where it systematically tries to kill everyone.
At the same time Jeff and his minions are on the hunt for the creature, a genetically created super snakehead fish worth millions as a biological weapon.
“Frankenfish” was released in 2004 and was directed by Mark A.Z. Dippe. It is an American horror film.
The film is supposed to be based on an incident in Crofton, Maryland in 2002 where snakehead fish took over a local pond. There were two other films that reportedly are based on the same true event. The other two films were “Snakehead Terror” 2004 and “Swarm of the Snakehead” 2006. The only “true event” that the movie is based on is that snakeheads exist and that a lake was infested with them. Everything else is a wild tale.
Even though the “true event”, as laid out in the film, isn’t really a thing, the movie was an interesting little horror film. Not great, but not bad. Some of the plot devises were a little shaky but no one really cares. The cult status comes from the blood, guts and gore, and some really strange big fish. The special effects were not the best, but it’s a lower budget “B” picture so wishy washy CGI is allowed.