The Freaky Girl

In a crowded film industry dominated by major studios and big-budget “event” movies, relatively low-budget indie films often find it hard to get a release date, if they’re lucky enough to get a commercial release (as opposed to straight-to-streaming service or DVD treatment) at all.  All things considered then, the American-Canadian science fiction not-quite-horror thriller ‘Freaks’ from Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein should count itself fortunate that it was picked up by a distributor (Well Go Entertainment, mostly known for importing Asian actioners to the American market) and given a theatrical release over a year after worming its way through the international film festival circuit.

 

‘Freaks’ is not a remake/reboot/reimagining of the 1932 B&W cult classic about a woman tarred-and-feathered into a squawking chicken so that she’s “one of us,” but it’s still pretty freaky in its own right.  It’s the mystery and suspense laden story of Chloe (Lexy Kolker), a 7-year old girl imprisoned – or rather, isolated from the outside world – by her overprotective dad (Emile Hirsch) in their claustrophobic home for undisclosed reasons.  While normal life goes on outside, she couldn’t even go out to buy ice cream from the kindly ice-cream truck vendor “Mr. Snowcone” (Bruce Dern) down the street.  “Just WTF is going on?”, you want to tear out your hair asking through the first two-thirds or so of the movie.

 

Sorry, but you’ll have to scour the web for spoilers (even Wikipedia is mum on its plot) or just go see it for yourself.  Suffice it to say that ‘Freaks’ only gradually reveals the answers to our questions, like the slow peeling of the layers of an onion before the big payoff.  Ultimately, while said payoff isn’t exactly earth-shattering or wholly unexpected, being a variation of a well-tread sci-fi mythos, it isn’t “M. Night Shyamalan frustrating” either.  That’s saying something at least.

Grade: B