Frogman is a found footage frightfest that isn’t afraid to get weird

Frogman is a found footage frightfest that isn’t afraid to get weird

The charm wielded by the “Cryptid Town” is indeed bizarre, appealing simultaneously to our sense of wonder and our wallets. The marriage of imagination and commerce makes the Cryptid Town a distinctly American phenomenon. Each a sort of diet Disney attraction where a fanciful and/or spooky story is exchanged for cold hard cash; where an irresistible, yet cheap to produce knickknack bearing the image of whatever beastie the locals claim may haunt the periphery of the town can prove an essential part of the economy. 

Loveland, Ohio is one of these Cryptid Towns. Loveland’s creature of legend is the Frogman, a four foot-tall humanoid frog that has been sighted as far back as 1955. Like any other cryptid, reports are largely dubious, with the telephone game of time helping to exaggerate them into much more than they likely are. But the damage is done, and if you go to Loveland, you can pick up as much Frogman swag as you want. And who knows? Maybe you’ll see the Loveland Frog and his magic wand (he has a magic wand — it shoots sparks).

Frogman uses this real-world Cryptid Town as the backdrop to its story. The “found” footage comes from filmmaker Dallas (Nathan Tymoshuk), his cameraman Scotty (Benny Barrett), and their star Amy (Chelsea Grant). When Dallas was a kid, he caught the Frogman on video during a family road trip, but in the years since, his lo-fi camcorder footage has been torn apart by talking heads on the internet. Now, as an adult with a few laughable films under his belt, he wishes to return to Loveland and prove to the world that he DID see the Frogman, and he CAN make a movie. 

As is typical with found footage films, Frogman takes a little bit of time to get going. It has to establish its main trio of characters and the interpersonal drama between them, while also making sure we never have a reason to ask why they’re still filming. In this case, the standard transition from “keep the cameras rolling, we’re making a movie” to “keep the camera rolling, we must document this madness” is pretty seamless. The exposition and framework are believable, and once everything is established the promise of the genre is that what follows is going to be nuts. It pleases me to report that Frogman delivers on the nuttiness in droves. 

Where this film exhibits its greatest strength is in the sheer amount of mythology that is expressed through action. In the interest of avoiding spoilers I’ll leave the details scant, but as our trio of friends dig deeper into their search for the Frogman, it becomes clear that Loveland’s relationship with the amphibious cryptid goes beyond the manufacture and sale of trinkets. It’s through interactions with townspeople and treks into the local wilderness that the bizarre backstory of the titular humanoid frog is revealed to both the audience and the onscreen audience surrogates. This fantastical and gruesome arcana is further expounded upon through effective creature design and some of the most upsetting body horror you’re apt to see within the found footage subgenre. 

Writer/director Anthony Cousins and co-writer John Karsko are able to get away with murder on account of delicious ambiguities afforded to the film by the framing device. If we subscribe to the notion that someone found and assembled this footage, it stands to reason that certain elements of what transpires would remain mysterious — we can only know what the camera knows. As such, Frogman is evocative of films like Willow Creek or The Blair Witch Project, where the only canonical “editorialization” comes from the edit itself. This could certainly frustrate viewers who seek a more cut-and-dry plot, but fans of the format will slurp it up like…well, like a Frogman. 

When dealing with cryptids on film, there’s a certain suspension of disbelief that’s hard to capture, largely due to the inherent silliness of cryptids on the whole. The Mothman Prophecies tried to skirt this issue by taking a roundabout and surreal approach to its central beastie to middling effect. The aforementioned Willow Creek fared a little better in embracing the whimsy that comes with Bigfoot lore (worth noting that the film was made by Bobcat Goldthwait, who knows his way around comedy), and Frogman takes a similar approach. The filmmaking team leans into the ridiculousness of a human-sized frog, allowing the proceedings to get a bit silly. This does not detract from the horror, however. In fact, it makes everything that much scarier. I am reminded a bit of Stephen King in that he’ll often write a story with an absurd premise (what if a laundry machine was haunted?), but when applied to the real world it’s the very absurdity that makes it scary (seriously, what if a laundry machine was haunted?). So yeah, a magic frogman sounds silly…but I ain’t trying to run afoul of a magic frogman at any point in my life. 

Frogman hits Vudu on 3/8

Directed by Anthony Cousins

Written by Anthony Cousins, John Karsko

Starring Nathan Tymoshuk, Benny Barrett, Chelsea Grant, Ali Daniels

Not rated, 77 minutes