Well,
here’s as ghastly a helping of grue and depravity as you’re likely to find this
side of the Inferno. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.
This bowlful of rancid ghoulash is an updating of Tod Browning’s career-buster, Freaks. Suggested by the short story “Spurs” by Tod Robbins and director Browning’s personal history with a traveling carnival, Freaks told the story of a circus aerialist who feigns love for a dwarf so he will marry her and leave her his European fortune when he dies, which she will arrange to have happen shortly. The other sideshow attractions discover what she’s up to and nothing good comes of it.
This new version tells essentially the same story only this time the femme fatale is attached to a group of criminals who have gotten security jobs with the circus. They plan to steal the box office receipts, kill anyone who gets in their way, and then light out for parts unknown. Hank (Dane Rosselli) leads the gang and he encourages Lucy (Rebekah Kochan) to play up to circus owner Lon—as in Tod Browning’s favorite actor, Lon Chaney—(Christopher Adamson) to keep him unsuspecting. Just so everything remains as hideous as possible, Lon is afflicted with boils all over his body—and to hear Lucy tell it, that means every part of his body.
As in the original, Lucy can’t keep the charade going when the freaks in the sideshow throw an engagement party for her and Lon, announcing that from that moment on she will be accepted as an honorary one of them. They pass a loving cup from which all the misshapen group drinks, and when it comes to her she is driven daffy by the thought of imbibing freak spit. She tells Lon what she really thinks of him and his menagerie of misfits, then goes screeching off to her tent. Knowing that Lucy may have blown their chance for a big payday, Hank forces her to go groveling to Lon and beg his forgiveness, which he appears to grant.
Ah, but his friends have overheard Hank and Lucy plotting, and when one of the criminal gang kills one of the freaks and tries to cover up the murder, Lon is told what is going on. Justice of a particularly twisted and horrific kind prevails.
The film was written by Keith Leopard and contains a few bits of over-the-top humor. One of the villains meets his end at the hands—and teeth—of Margaret the Cannibal Girl (Amanda Ward) and, yes, that’s right, the character is Margaret the Cannibal Girl. How exotic. Drew Bell directs cleverly, leading us to a denouement that is as gob-smackingly ghastly as it is inevitable. Even horror fans with strong stomachs may want to find an excuse to leave the room during the movie’s final reel.
The rest of you sickos will eccch with delight.
This bowlful of rancid ghoulash is an updating of Tod Browning’s career-buster, Freaks. Suggested by the short story “Spurs” by Tod Robbins and director Browning’s personal history with a traveling carnival, Freaks told the story of a circus aerialist who feigns love for a dwarf so he will marry her and leave her his European fortune when he dies, which she will arrange to have happen shortly. The other sideshow attractions discover what she’s up to and nothing good comes of it.
This new version tells essentially the same story only this time the femme fatale is attached to a group of criminals who have gotten security jobs with the circus. They plan to steal the box office receipts, kill anyone who gets in their way, and then light out for parts unknown. Hank (Dane Rosselli) leads the gang and he encourages Lucy (Rebekah Kochan) to play up to circus owner Lon—as in Tod Browning’s favorite actor, Lon Chaney—(Christopher Adamson) to keep him unsuspecting. Just so everything remains as hideous as possible, Lon is afflicted with boils all over his body—and to hear Lucy tell it, that means every part of his body.
As in the original, Lucy can’t keep the charade going when the freaks in the sideshow throw an engagement party for her and Lon, announcing that from that moment on she will be accepted as an honorary one of them. They pass a loving cup from which all the misshapen group drinks, and when it comes to her she is driven daffy by the thought of imbibing freak spit. She tells Lon what she really thinks of him and his menagerie of misfits, then goes screeching off to her tent. Knowing that Lucy may have blown their chance for a big payday, Hank forces her to go groveling to Lon and beg his forgiveness, which he appears to grant.
Ah, but his friends have overheard Hank and Lucy plotting, and when one of the criminal gang kills one of the freaks and tries to cover up the murder, Lon is told what is going on. Justice of a particularly twisted and horrific kind prevails.
The film was written by Keith Leopard and contains a few bits of over-the-top humor. One of the villains meets his end at the hands—and teeth—of Margaret the Cannibal Girl (Amanda Ward) and, yes, that’s right, the character is Margaret the Cannibal Girl. How exotic. Drew Bell directs cleverly, leading us to a denouement that is as gob-smackingly ghastly as it is inevitable. Even horror fans with strong stomachs may want to find an excuse to leave the room during the movie’s final reel.
The rest of you sickos will eccch with delight.
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