The movie directed by Tom Stern about guests being turn into mutants & caged for the freak show, was originally conceived as a low-budget horror film featuring the experimental rock band, 'Butthole Surfers' in the titular roles. Then, after a year in production, the bizarre motion picture was completely rewritten into a comedy by Stern, Alex Winter and Tim Burn after their short-lived MTV sketch show, 'The Idiot Box' ended in 1991. Pitched to 20th Century Fox & dropping the aspect of the Butthole Surfers entirely in 1992, the film now feature an absurdist & surrealistic parody feel, full of expensive Claymation special effects, prosthetic, robotics costumes, puppetry & make up work. Heavily inspired by the drawings of ultra-gross out works from Robert Crumb, MAD Magazine & the Garbage Pail Kids, Winter & Stern had three different companies: Tony Gardner's Alterian, Inc., Steve Johnson's XFX, Inc., and Screaming Mad George's Studio work on the designs. While, for the most part, the effects were amazing, often giving homage to visual creators like Ray Harryhausen & Art Clokey. Some of the movie magic can be a bit visually overwhelming. The opening clay motion credits sequences with punk music playing in the background is one such example. It can potentially trigger seizure for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised. Then, there is effects that hasn't aged well. You can tell, with some of the creature features. One such example was Cowboy (Voiced by John Hawkes). His skin look more like rubber than cowhide. Plus, his mouth can barely moves. It looks really cheap. While, the dodgy effects didn't pull me out of the narrative, seeing how the comedy had a Meta value to it, where they point, in story, how crappy, some of the effects were, like with Sockhead (Voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait). I do wish, they could had done a better job with some of them. Regardless, for the most part, the visual jokes that came with the sights did work with me. I found myself, laughing my head off, at certain parts like the hammer, once being a wretch & the airplane crashing gag. Nevertheless, I do understand if some people might find this movie, unfunny. Some of the jokes like the Bob Vila parody would, indeed go over the people's heads, because how dated, they were. Then, I can comprehend, those who would get appall and repulse by this movie's gross out humor. Some of the exaggerated juvenile, cheesy, flatulence and gross out body humor can be a bit much to take. For example, I really didn't find the Eternal Flame (Lee Arenberg)'s gag, that funny. Farts are a bit one dimension. That character really could had been cut; along with a few others, that rarely affect the story. One such person was Ernie (Michael Stoyanov). That character was a bit obnoxious. I don't really understand, why he was there in the first place. You can have the same story with main hero, Ricky Coogan (Alex Winter) getting fuse with love-interest, Julie (Megan Ward), and still get the same results. Nevertheless, there is one character that really attached the story, all together & I'm not talking about the protagonist. Winter was fine in the movie, but it's the villain, Elijah C. Skruggs (Randy Quaid) that really shines. He was probably the best thing in the film. Much of the best laughs, come from his great way of deliverance. There is no better example of that, then the mistaken foot tease between him and the secondary villain, Dick Brian (William Sandler). That part, got me, laughing my head off! Even the supporting cast had some good hilarious moments. I kinda dig Keanu Reeves as the dog boy and Derek McGarth as the Human Worm. However, Mr. T as the bearded lady was kinda disappointing. Its sucks that the actor got stressed out, and left the production before filming was finished. They really could had used him, a little bit more. Regardless of that, as for the other cameos; Morgan Fairchild & Brooke Shields were fine within their short roles. One minor character actor that really need deserve credit & praise is Deep Roy, who played multiply roles within the film. He really went all out for this movie, donning costumes, make up and doing stunts work. He nearly died when a stunt involving being throw into glass went all wrong. Thank goodness, he was able to recover from those injuries. The stunt crew for this movie really did pull out a great show. Most of the slapstick kinda works for a PG-13 rating. Sadly, after several poor test screenings with rowdy clueless teenagers and complains from conservative parents, the movie was pulled from a worldwide distribution and only played on a handful of screens in the United States. They also cut its advertising budget, leaving no money for commercials or newspaper ads. It's sucks because Fox had such high expectations for the film that they released a number of products based on it, including action figures, a novelization and, most notably, a comic book. They really hope, that the film would be their version of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', or at least, their own form of 'the Toxic Crusaders'. Instead, 'Freaked' barely made it on the VCR & DVD markets, resulting in rarity. Even the soundtrack got hit hard, as many of the film's songs had to cut; including a demo from Iggy Pop. Regardless, most of the music that stayed, were alright for the time, however, the punk rock feel does feel a bit dated since then. Everything about the soundtrack, screams, trying too hard to seem 'extreme'. Regardless of the music, overall: this obscure gem deserves better than being commonly mistaken from a remake of 1932's Tod Browning film 'Freaks', when its clearly not. It's more than that. It's wildly imaginative, energetic and often very funny. If you want a definition of what makes a cult movie then this is as good start. Check it out!
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