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| Courtesy of 20th Century Fox |
Opening on a talk show hosted by Skye Daley (Brooke
Shields), we come to find her interviewing former child actor Ricky Coogin
(Alex Winter) silhouetted in shadow hiding his facial features The Elephant
Man style. Flashing back years
prior, Ricky accepts an endorsement from a sleazy mega corporation called EES
(Everything Except Shoes) to promote a dangerous new fertilizer being deployed
in South Africa called Zygrot 24. Traveling
to the fictional town of “Santa Flan” with his friend Ernie (Michael Stoyanov),
they pick up an environmental protestor on the way named Julie (Megan Ward)
only to end up taking a detour to check out local freak show Freekland, hosted
by sideshow entrepreneur Elijah C. Skuggs (Randy Quaid). Unbeknownst to the trio, Skuggs plans to turn
them into sideshow freaks using the Zygrot 24 substance, effectively
transforming Ernie and Julie into cojoined twins and the film’s hero Ricky into
a half-human, half-gremlin deformed mutant.
A one-of-a-kind cult horror-comedy gem with a most checkered
production history and bungled theatrical rollout, Freaked was
originally envisioned as an absurdly violent horror film ala The Evil Dead intending
to showcase the music of Butthole Surfers before The Idiot Box co-writer
helped Winter and Stern revise the picture as a gross-out surreal gonzo comedy. The finished product sits comfortably
alongside such wickedly wild cult comedy fare as Forbidden Zone, UHF,
Nothing But Trouble, Tank Girl starring three of the actors from Bill
& Ted’s Bogus Journey. Tod
Browning’s Freaks by way of The Ren & Stimpy Show replete
with spectacularly disgusting visual effects rendered by not one but three effects
teams including Brian Yuzna regular Screaming Mad George, Freaked has
the comical energy of the Zucker Brothers comedies if it took place in the
nightmarish netherworld of Dr. Caligari.
Despite efforts to promote the film via comic books and
action figures prior to the release, the studio changed heads during production
and the new seat slashed the budget as well as changed the name from its
original working title Hideous Mutant Freekz. Some of the originally intended music cues
had to be dropped as well. Nevertheless
the effects teams and central actor-director Winter prevailed, delivering one
of the weirdest yet most star studded insta-cult comedies of the 1990s. Much of the film’s zaniness stems not just
from the makeup effects work but also legendary production designer and film
director Catherine Hardwicke’s wild set pieces which at times feel like Nothing
But Trouble dripping with cannisters of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles green
ooze. There’s also, opening the film, a truly
hyperkinetic stop-motion animation sequence that resembles Will Vinton if he
were on crack, setting the wacky tone of this thing out of the gate.
Visually speaking despite the overt ugly gross-out gags and
gore, some of which was toned down to receive a PG-13, is rendered fabulously
by cinematographer Jamie Thompson in rich lush colors and wide-angled lenses in
closeup for additionally peculiar effect.
Going for that same kind of playfully looney visual aesthete as Bill
& Ted’s Bogus Journey, the look of Freaked resembles that of a
Saturday Morning Cartoon from the 1990s.
Then there’s the soundtrack which is a combination of needle drops
including but not limited to the Butthole Surfers and Blind Idiot God with the
title track sung by Henry Rollins as well as an original score by Star Wars:
The Clone Wars composer Kevin Kiner, mixed in with the dialogue at times
with much flatulence because, you know, farts are funny.
Where to begin with the cast of this thing? You’ve got Alex Winter having to act out much
of his scenes in horrendously repulsive makeup with his mouth stuck open
drooling freely, reminiscent of Shinya Tsukamoto’s metal freak in Tetsuo:
The Iron Man. You’ve got a number of
unexpected cameos including but not limited to William Sadler, Mr. T, Keanu
Reeves uncredited as Ortiz “The Dog Boy”, Bobcat Goldthwait as “Sockhead”
(literally a sock puppet) and Morgan Fairchild.
Some of the actors are in full blown body suits that look like a
nightmare to have been in such as Derek McGrath as a giant “Worm”. Arguably the most unhinged show stealer of
this thing is Randy Quaid who is either brilliantly hamming it up or is every
bit as insane as the actor eventually genuinely turned out to be. A dark and dangerous mad-scientist/sideshow
host, Quaid dives into the role of Skuggs and only seems to climb further up
into the tree as the saga draws near its batshit conclusion.
The changing heads atop 20th Century Fox
compounded with the film’s poor reception at several test screenings resulted
in a rather shuttered theatrical release with the studio yanking all
promotional materials before dumping it in only two theaters screens in the
United States. Garnering a mere $30,000,
Freaked didn’t last long theatrically before being dumped once again on
home video a year later. Despite this,
the film did garner a cult following on home video sales of the VHS followed by
a now out-of-print two-disc DVD set from Anchor Bay Entertainment as well as a
blu-ray disc which goes for well over $100 from third party resellers.
While it did win two film festival awards
including copping a Saturn Award nomination, Freaked still remains
tragically obscure which is a real shame considering just how much wild
boundless imagination is conjured up onscreen.
With still stunning makeup effects and a sharp directorial-acting-writing
talent behind it, Freaked while shifting Alex Winter’s career towards
drama, back to comedy and eventually documentaries remains the filmmaker’s
singular masterpiece. A film that isn’t
content to fit into any particular niche of gross-out comedy, this is one
untamed beast of a movie, a crazy ride that doesn’t know how to slow down once
it goes over the top of the hill. Ren
Hoek and Stimpson J. Cat would be very proud.
--Andrew Kotwicki
