'Freaked' Movie Review

The movie "Freaked" came out in 1993. It starred Randy Quaid. He was an evil carnival host who had several freak mutants in his private circus show farm ranch out in the middle of nowhere. The main actor in this is Alex Winter; who looked like an absolute star. He was airy and confident from the beginning, clearly communicating what type of man Ricky Coogan is. When he gets allured to a secret ranch where they mutate and harvest freaks, he meets his match in Elijah Skuggs (Randy Quaid) who is an evil scientist. The Ricky Coogan is wild and confident, and Elijah C Skuggs is masterful and maniacal. He wears a white lab coat, and has a secret green ooze that convert humans into weird freakazoids. Several big star actors are in this. It is star studded in fact. And all the acting is humorous and on point. At times, it gets to be a little too B-movie. But all the shots are clean and the jokes are hilarious. Alex Winter transferred over to this from Bill and Ted's Adventure seamlessly. His acting was great. This movie was a total bomb and went under the radar, but the humor in it was fundamentally sound. Freaked went mostly unnoticed. The plot inspires heart. We watch the battle unfold between Coogan and Scuggs, cheering for Coogan the whole time to take him down. We wonder if the scientist will ever get what he deserves in the end. This movie has so much gore....and I'm not even talking about blood. It just has all this disgusting stuff in it. There are moments of squirting green ooze, orange bile, mutated body parts, and freak animal-human hybrids. And that's for most of the movie.

This movie has star studded actors who deliver an incredible performance, but it had enough to disgust me too. I turned it off the TV the first few times I saw it. It was like that movie "Nothing But Trouble" the Chevy Chase one where they get stuck on that ugly rich guy's mansion land out in the middle of nowhere and have to get out (Dan Aykroyd). It's got all this gore and disgusting stuff, but you can't look away. It's weird and disgusting, but we like it. It has star actors and the cinematography is sound. I think one reason these movies didn't do well is because the titles were too strange. "Freaked" is not very descriptive of what happens in this movie. The word 'freaked' by itself has a bunch of connotations. The title should have said something like "The Freak Ringmaster". That would have been more accurate about the movie. Or "Escape from Freak Ranch". And "Nothing But Trouble" also was a bad title. It was too vague, these words could mean anything. This movie had so many stars in it, the plot was great. They should have called it "Escape from Freak Mansion".

The co-stars of Freaked were unbelievable. Each character brought a passion to the movie even though the situations were disgusting and uncomfortable. The makeup was unbelievable. The effects were so good. We actually believed that this guy was on his ranch altering other human's Dna with this green ooze, and getting away with it. Randy Quaid had long hair and a white labcoat the whole movie. He was always on stage for jokes. This movie was great, but it somehow slips under the radar. A lot of the images are weird. The main character has this mutated green monster face for half the movie. We can hardly look at it, but we can hardly look away, as we are enthralled by the story. We want Rick to succeed in taking down the ringmaster in the freak ranch so badly. The foe has so much impossible power, but our hero is so heroic and determined to succeed, with the help of his comrads. This movie has so much ugly, and is raw and hardcore. The primary second actress is Brooke Shields, who is the interviewer recounting with Ricky the amazing story for tv. In the end, this movie has too much ugliness in it for us to watch it for very long. There also is this sock-puppet head guy, who is mouthed by Bobcat Goldthwaite. It's a little disturbing. It even has Mr T in it. He plays a significant role for the hero to come out victorious. Alex Winter shines like never before, as a superstar smash hit actor, who gets sidetracked on a highway out in the middle of nowhere and has to save the day from the evil twisted scientist's freak ranch. Name this movie something different, and cut out some of the gore and gross scenes, and you have a decent watchable movie. I was still so enthralled when I was watching this movie I was on the edge of my seat.

-Movie Review Corner