Freaked - Tom Stren & Alex Winter (1993)

If I ever actually get into a conversation with anyone who's seen Freaked I'm probably going to open the conversation with a shake of the head and a heavy exhale. Patton Oswalt has coined a term that really needs to catch fire; the, "IS THIS HAPPENING?" movie club.

"The reason you're so brain-cracked as you watch these movies is that, unlike on-the-borderlands fare like THE STORY OF RICKY, DEAD ALIVE and ICHI THE KILLER, these are boilerplate, wide-release films put out by major studios. In thousands of theaters, all across America, for anyone to see. And yet they contain winking corpses, black-light massacres and Saffron Burrows stripping down to bra and panties so she can electrocute a genius-level shark.
Somehow, someone tricked someone else at the MPAA and, let's face it, the studio itself to let these wonderfully transgressive movies loose to roam the countryside."

I need to pass a copy of Freaked along to Patton. When I saw the cover for Freaked I assumed that it was some straight to video nonsense but no, it was a theatrical release with Brooke Shields and an uncredited cameo from Keanu Reeves . I'm not going to try and conceive how this film got made but as close to a live action cartoon as you'll find. Director, Alex Winter a teen heartthrob....on his way to meet with a evil chemical company he plans to endorse; our hero Rick(Winter) decides to stop at a off road freak-show where he, his friend and a pissed of feminist they picked up, are all turned into monstrosities. That's about all you need to know. Oh wait, Sadler's Rick has an obsessive fan, a young boy named Stuey who is one of the most hideous child actors you'll ever see. I'm not really sure why the kid is a fan of a star who is a heartthrob but I'm not about to question the logic of a movie with giant ass sock puppets. Anyway, while the weakest bits of comedy is the fratboy stuff, the strongest bits are the amounts of physical abuse aimed at this kid Stuey, who's tossed out of an airplane in his first scene and occupies a montage that just consists of him being thrown through windows.Other stronger bits of humor are the bits really self aware about pop culture with some obvious jabs Brooke Sheilds and a great joke about cliched flashbacks as a device.  Oh yeah this movie has Mr. T as a bearded woman. The humor might be hit or miss but the makeup SPX are actually really, really impressive with a giant worms and and especially Stuey who's turned into a giant monster at the end . What's really impressive is the film features an early turn by Oscar nominee John Hawkes as Cowboy, a humanoid cow dressed as western hero. I suspect with Hawkes career blossoming he's taken measures to make sure the film  is never seen. Anyway for fans of obscure cinema and cult films its definitely worth seeking out. And if you ever run into Brooke Shields or John Hawkes, tell them you loved the film and be sure to let me know what their reaction is.

 

And the whole thing is available on youtube.