Heiners Filmseiten – Freckled Max and the Spooks (en)

Freckled Max and the Spooks (Pehavý Max a strašidlá)

German title: Pehavý Max a strašidlá (Der sommersprossige Max und die Gespenster)
Russian title: Конопатый Макс и привидения
Original title: Pehavý Max a strašidlá

Alternative titles:
Freckled Max and the Ghost / Freckle-Faced Max and the Ghosts / Pehavý Max a strasidlá / Pehavy Max a strasidla

Fantasy comedy – CSSR, FRG, Austria, France, Spain, Italy
Production year: 1986
Movie length: 97 minutes

Director: Juraj Jakubisko
Writer: Juraj Jakubisko, Jaroslav Dietl, Joachim Hammann, Jozef Pastéka, Alan Rune Pettersson
Cinematograph: Ján Duris
Music: Guido De Angelis

Movie description:

Young orphan Max leaves the circus to escape his abusive fosters. Taking a refuge in a desolate castle, he gets acquainted with the most unlikely company: a vampire, a werewolf, the Frankenstein monster – and an extraordinary old lady.

An orphaned boy wanders through the world and is not really missed by anybody. He finally arrives at a strange castle and soon discovers that it is inhabited by a group of spooky creatures led by Baron Frankenstein. Although the film, which has been described as a modern fairy-tale, is to a great extent based on well-known Frankenstein motives, it brings more to film viewers than just fascination and horror provoked by the various monsters. The whole theme is the basis for a film parody, while at the same time sticking to the unwritten rules of fairy-tales; finding moral values. Together with the boy we soon find out that each of the spooky inhabitants of the castle – from Max to Dracula – have a »human« side to them. They search for something the orphaned boy lacks himself.

Boy Actors