Freaked (1993) - A Surprising Delight

Life is short and precious. And unfortunately sometimes I watch a horror movie that is such an utter waste of time I feel ashamed of wasting an hour and a half of precious time watching it. I expected Freaked, directed by Tom Stern & Alex Winter, to fall into this category. Wonderfully, it didn't.

Freaked follows conceited former child actor Ricky (Alex Winter), as he takes a questionable endorsement for fertiliser, travelling to 'Santa Flan' with friend Ernie (Michael Stoyanov) in tow. They meet activist Julie (Megan Ward) and all three take a detour to a roadside Freakshow, where the mad scientist blasts them all into 'Freaks.'

Freaked is whacky, tongue in cheek and bizarre, yet that's what makes it all work. The characters are all earnestly trapped in their earnest horror movie, which makes the freak who's been transformed into a sock puppet delightfully absurd. However, they are also all caricatures, which saves the film from appearing too mean spirited, especially with characters such as Stuey (Alex Zuckerman), whilst also poking fun at stereotypes of the tiem, such as Julie being an 'angry feminist.' Most interestingly, Mr T as the bearded woman could easily have fallen into being the butt of out of touch jokes becomes progressive for the time. This film doesn't age badly.

Other notable humour includes the self awareness of how movies work; such as the plane landing shot fake out that actually made me laugh out loud, which is very rare.

Of course, this is all underlined by the choice to go with (mostly) practical effects. This adds the needed gross-out body horror to still keep the character's situation horrific and keeps the film's charm: you can tell everyone who worked on this enjoyed what they did. It's this heart that means you still want to see the characters succeed in their mission, and that you do care about what happens to them.

The only downside is the obligatory twist reveal ending that feels a bit like jumping the shark on absurdness; a criticism given to many third acts of body horrors (Even The Substance is not immune to it). However, the charm and care of the rest of the movie make it a manageable offence.

I could list every funny joke in the film, but it's probably better to just go and watch it - I promise, it's not a waste of time.