crownofsprats Look, I'm gonna throw out some film names here, and if you're into any of them, chances are you'll be into this too:Nothing But Trouble, Terrorvision, Greasy Strangler, Meet The Feebles, Meet The Hollowheads, Street Trash, Forbidden Zone, Frankenhooker...Yes, this can unequivocally be described by words like "stupid" or "crude". But that would be missing the point. You like your films extra-bizarre with a heaping of absurdity on the side? This is gen-x anti-corporate cynicism lumped together with a greasy carnie's hallucinatory visions, deep fried in bizarre, drenched in crude browns and greens. The stale, dated jokes don't matter - they're like a weird crust made out of old crushed-up potato chips. A few even manage to land here and there. Bobcat is maximally obnoxious, and some of the freak characters have literally zero dimension beyond a gag or two. But the SFX are almost as great as Randy Quaid's performance, so it all balances out. Frankly, this is a million miles above most mainstream frat humor both then and now, and a more entertaining piece of cinema than a third of the garbage that actually made it onto the theater screen in the 90s. (The Kilmer/Clooney Batman films immediately spring to mind.) In short: if you were looking for something like this, you will be very happy to have found it.

Claudio Carvalho The TV journalist Skye Daley (Brooke Shields) hosts the boastful actor Ricky Coogan (Alex Winter) to tell his recent adventure in Central America. Ricky accepts to promote the toxic fertilizer Zygrot 24 from the E.E.S. Corporation in Santa Flan; in return, he would receive US$ 5,000,000 from the corrupt E.E.S. Chairman Dick Brian (William Sadler). He travels with his best friend Ernie (Michael Stoyanov) to Santa Flan and on the arrival, they meet the gorgeous Julie (Megan Ward), who is protesting against the Zygrot 24. Ricky lures her telling that Ernie and he are protesters and she joins the two friends in a trip to the E.E.S. Soon she discovers the truth but they are in the middle of nowhere and she goes with them. They decide to take a detour to see the Freakland Carnival and they meet the owner Elijah C. Skuggs (Randy Quaid) and his henchmen Toad (Jaime Cardriche). Soon they learn that Skuggs is an insane genius that uses a machine that processes the Zygrot 24 to transform normal people into hideous mutants to work in his sideshow. Ricky is transformed in a monster and Julie and Ernie are merged in conjoined monsters. What will happen to our heroes?"Freaked" is a politically incorrect black comedy with a surrealistic story about a sideshow where the attractions are made by the insane owner of the carnival. This film is still funny and cult after watching many times. It is impossible to recognize the uncredited Keanu Reeves, in the role of Ortiz the Dog Boy. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Freaklândia: O Parque dos Horrores" ("Freakland: The Horror Carnival")

Scott LeBrun Continuing the tradition established by the legendary "Freaks" in 1932 and its variations - "She-Freak" and "The Freakmaker" - comes this wonderfully warped, in-your-face comedy with plenty of satirical detail co-written and co-directed by Alex Winter, always to be best known as Bill from the "Bill & Ted" films. Winter also stars, as an arrogant young actor who quickly abandons whatever scruples he's got when a corporation pays him a fortune to be the spokesman for a lethal chemical known as Zygrot-24. He and his horny, goof ball friend Ernie (Michael Stoyanov) fly to the country of Santa Flan as part of the deal, hook up with activist Julie (Megan Ward), and investigate the isolated freak show theme park run by one Elijah C. Skuggs (a grandiose Randy Quaid). There they get turned into the latest addition to Skuggs's collection of attractions. Now, since some of these attractions include a "cowboy" (John Hawkes), a human / worm hybrid (Derek McGrath), Mr. T as the bearded lady, and a character with a sock puppet for a head voiced by the unique Bobcat Goldthwait, that makes this something that's not to be passed up. Anything but boring, this well paced and genuinely amusing movie has some inspired bits, such as the "13 milkmen" gag, the rastafarian eyeball henchmen, and the toad sidekick who ensnares just about anything with his extra special long tongue. The soundtrack, featuring such artists as Henry Rollins & Blind Idiot God, Paul Leary, Butthole Surfers, and George Clinton, is a great deal of fun. Delightfully garish production design (by future director Catherine Hardwicke) and cinematography (by Jamie Thompson) also help a great deal in the creation of this deliberately over the top affair, featuring cameos from the likes of Morgan Fairchild and Calvert DeForest (a.k.a. Larry "Bud" Melman) and a supporting cast including William Sadler, Ray Baker, Alex Zuckerman, and Brooke Shields. Keanu Reeves, Ted to Winter's Bill in the "Bill & Ted" films, has rarely been as entertaining as he is here; buried under heavy makeup as Ortiz the Dog Boy, it looks like he's really having fun. It's unfortunate that almost 20 years ago when this came out, that people expecting more of the same "Bill & Ted" type of stuff were disappointed. "Freaked" is good fun, with eye boggling, highly impressive makeup effects from the likes of Steve Johnson and Screaming Mad George and good old fashioned stop motion animation from David Allen. It definitely deserves another look. Eight out of 10.

MisterWhiplash Freaked is the kind of movie that Lloyd Kaufman's company Troma wants to make, all the time, 24/7. And they often do, but with a lack of talent and a dearth of funds, so that the cheesy script that has some real edge to it on occasion suffers from everything else around it being so Z-grade (sometimes this benefits it like Class of Nuke Em High, and other times not at all). But directors Alex Winter (who played Bill in Bill & Ted) and Tom Stern have money, at least enough to pull off some solid special effects make-up, and some genuine comic talent, at least the kind that could go for this kind of thing. And yes, I include Brooke Shields, Deep Roy, Bobcat Goldthwait and Mr. T in this discussion. Also, Alex Winter. And Randy Quaid is there too. For the sake of a film like Freaked, set in Santa Flan and about a crazy hick who creates his own carnival of freaks from a corporate-created toxin, it's just what's necessary (Keanu Reeves is here too, but uncredited).The jokes fly at a clip that is about as insane as imaginable. It has the pacing that is even more reminiscent of a Looney Tunes cartoon, or something really crazy like an underground comic or Ren & Stimpy at their most manic-brilliant. A joke goes so fast and thick, either visual (Rastafarian Eyeballs, I rest my case), or verbal, like the dialog from the corporate toxin-mongers, "Twelve milkmen IS theoretically possible. Thirteen is silly. Looks like there's one milkman too many, Coogan!" That the designs on everybody, Winter, Mr. T, Goldthwait, Reeves (yes, the Dog-Boy he is) is really convincing is one thing, since it's work done for a really outrageous cause. Even little things like the Alfred E. Newman kid comes off convincingly. Did I mention all of the jokes going so much? It is a comedy where overkill is more than a possibility, it is a necessity after a while. From practically the start it's set up like a Pee Wee's Playhouse episode dipped in kerosene and let loose inside of a madhouse (yes, even more than the Playhouse). But the filmmakers bypass going *too* far (if that's possible) by sticking to their metaphorical guns. If you're making a movie about a bunch of freaks where Randy Quaid is the master in charge, why not go for the most crazy things imaginable and crudely so (for example, the seemingly wisest character of the freaks, an eloquent British-voiced earthworm, keeps asking for help to wipe his own ass). This isn't Tod Browning's film, which actually tried for some real heart and depth to looking at actual freaks. It's a gaudy cartoon spectacle, and it's filmed like it and acted like it and for every one joke or gag or pun that falls flat, twenty others hit their targets directly. It even trumps another 1993 comedy, Mel Brooks' Robin Hood, for being so zany that for the right viewer (like myself) you have to catch your breath. If you're in the mood for it, you'll get attached to it pretty quickly. It's got such an array of imagination and absurdism, from gags involving postal worker uniforms to a transformation *into) Brooke Shields as a mutant equivalent, that it either works for you or it doesn't. It did for me, and it's more than likely to hit a nerve with film geeks looking for that kind of obscure mid 90's cult gem.