Freaked
1993 Directed by Alex Winter, Tom Stern
Synopsis
A vain actor, his best friend, and an activist end up at a mutant freak farm run by a weirdo scientist.
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Freaked is the brainchild of Alex (Bill S. Preston, Esq.) Winter and video director Tom (Butthole Surfers/Red Hot Chili Peppers) Stern. It is fucking weird. It features Mr. T as a bearded lady, Bobcat Goldthwait as a dude with a sock puppet for a head, a pre-unknown John Hawkes as a talking man-cow, and an uncredited Keanu Reeves as Ortiz the Dog Boy.
It's a close relative of mean, gross-out movies like Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie and Nothing But Trouble, but is arguably more successful due to the fact I actually laughed a couple of times. It also has a ton of pretty cool make up effects and a couple brief stop motion ballyhoos. Plus, the anti-corporate storyline with…
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Completely original and out of control. If you have never seen this movie, and you have a Letterboxd account, this must become a priority. Alex Winter must have put every good idea he ever had into this movie, because he really hasn't done anything else. That's okay because we get to see 90 minutes, jam-packed with awesome stuff.
Still waiting for a Stuey Gluck prequel.
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Ricky Coogan, a former child star, is now a scumbag working for EES, Everything Except Shoes, as a product shill for their new chemical compound Zygrot-24. After flying to the tiny country of Santa Flan, named after the patron saint of creamy desserts, Coogan, his buddie Ernie, and one of the protesters stumble upon Freekland, a freakshow theme park run by Elijah C. Skuggs who's been using Zygrot-24 to turn normal people into freaks! So after the tour, the three are turned into freaks themselves and must try to find a way to escape, along with the other freaks!
Freaked is a hilariously absurd comedy chock full of parody, sight gags, and slapstick humour that plays out like the bastard…
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Love this one. It's got such a deranged sensibility. Why isn't it more popular?
Highlights:
- the kid falling from the plane
- Rastafarian eyeballs
- Randy Quaid gets some great lines.
- Mr. T as the bearded lady -
The Music Box in Chicago had Alex Winter come out for a double feature of this and Death Wish 3 . It was great to finally get to see this at the movies . This reminds me so much of high school with my obsession for Film Threat and Psychotronic Video magazine . Those were both the best guides to finding new movies like this .
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Bizarre
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Thank God for HBO. If it weren't for HBO, I would have never seen (or maybe even 'heard' of) something as weird as Freaked. It's too scattershot to be considered a truly "good" movie, but it's undeniably unique and certainly memorable. Whenever I talk about Cult movies, this one always comes immediately to mind.
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The funniest film you've never seen. For the love of god, rent it now.
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I have wanted to see this film for so long...I remember reading a review back in the late 90's and thinking it sounded awesome. So I have had it on one of those mental to see lists in my mind since reading that review 15 plus years ago and finally I got to see it.
Problem is, I should have seen this movie 15 years ago when I read that review.
It's not that I didn't like the movie, I did...but I feel I would have loved this film as the 15 year younger version of me. Back then I would have been charmed by this films use of claymation, traditional prosthetics special effects and quirky humour...it would have been…
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Completely original and out of control. If you have never seen this movie, and you have a Letterboxd account, this must become a priority. Alex Winter must have put every good idea he ever had into this movie, because he really hasn't done anything else. That's okay because we get to see 90 minutes, jam-packed with awesome stuff.
Still waiting for a Stuey Gluck prequel.
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It was never boring, and there was some really great make-up work and original character design. BUT...the film just felt like it was always trying so hard and it just came off as stupid. Like most of the freaks aren't even given screen time to get to know them either. Like the Cow or the Scuba Diver for example?
And another thing is that the bad guy, Randy Quaid, is far more likable then the lead guy, Alex Winter. In fact, Winter is such a douche-bag here and his over acting is awful, you just really don't care about him.
Megan Ward is very adorable here, and the older brother from Blossom also works well here.
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Ricky Coogan, a former child star, is now a scumbag working for EES, Everything Except Shoes, as a product shill for their new chemical compound Zygrot-24. After flying to the tiny country of Santa Flan, named after the patron saint of creamy desserts, Coogan, his buddie Ernie, and one of the protesters stumble upon Freekland, a freakshow theme park run by Elijah C. Skuggs who's been using Zygrot-24 to turn normal people into freaks! So after the tour, the three are turned into freaks themselves and must try to find a way to escape, along with the other freaks!
Freaked is a hilariously absurd comedy chock full of parody, sight gags, and slapstick humour that plays out like the bastard…
-
Freaked is the brainchild of Alex (Bill S. Preston, Esq.) Winter and video director Tom (Butthole Surfers/Red Hot Chili Peppers) Stern. It is fucking weird. It features Mr. T as a bearded lady, Bobcat Goldthwait as a dude with a sock puppet for a head, a pre-unknown John Hawkes as a talking man-cow, and an uncredited Keanu Reeves as Ortiz the Dog Boy.
It's a close relative of mean, gross-out movies like Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie and Nothing But Trouble, but is arguably more successful due to the fact I actually laughed a couple of times. It also has a ton of pretty cool make up effects and a couple brief stop motion ballyhoos. Plus, the anti-corporate storyline with…
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Satirical comedy about genetic mutation in a South American enclave. Clever and funny with some great practical mutant effects.