Director
Alex Winter and Tom Stern
Cast
Alex Winter - Ricky Coogan
Michael Stoyanov - Ernie
Megan Ward - Julie
Randy Quaid - Elijah C. Skuggs
Alex Zuckerman - Stuey Gluck
The term "cult" is used often to describe a lot of movies. I think it's often misused. "Cult" is meant to describe generally unpopular obscure films that manage to have a fan base for the simple fact they're bad or obscure yet still entertain.
For example, some audiences consider A Christmas Story to be a cult film. But the thing is, though it was a low-budget movie, and faded for a short time after its 1983 release, it's well established in pop culture now. It's by no means an obscure movie. Low budget doesn't mean cult.
Freaked is a movie I hadn't heard of until a few months ago. It definitely has a specific target audience- a specific group of fans. It's Airplane meets Tim Burton, meets Pee Wee's Playhouse, meets that weird animation scene Rob Zombie did for Beavis and Butthead Do America.
This flick cost about $13 million to make (mostly towards its special effects), but it only made back a little over $29,000.
According to IMDB.com, some audiences believed this was going to be a sequel to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure as it stars Alex Winter and an uncredited Keanu Reeves. It also stars William Sadler who starred as the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey in 1991. They must have been sorely disappointed to learn that wasn't the case.
A lot of celebrities are in this movie - Brooke Shields, Randy Quaid, Megan Ward, Mr. T, and Bobcat Goldthwait, and a cameo by Morgan Fairchild.
I just cannot say it's a good movie, even if I believed it to be so. I just can't. I don't think it's meant to be a good movie. It's meant to be a comedy filled with gross-out humor, pseudo science fiction, with one liner after one liner and sight gag after sight gag.
There is so much happening here. And it definitely accomplished what it set out to do.
Directed by Alex Winter and Tom Stern, both of whom were in the Bill & Ted movies, it's a gross and a high energy movie.
Winter plays a former child star, Ricky Coogan, who shares his story on a talk show hosted by Skye Daley (Brooke Shields) of how he became so hideously disfigured...or, "freaked."
His story begins with his accepting a contract from a giant company called E.E.S. (Everything Except Shoes) that'll ensure he promotes a toxic fertilizer called Zygrot 24 in South America.
The E.E.S. CEO (William Sadler) offers Coogan $5 million, which he can't refuse.
So, Coogan flies down to the South American town of San Flan (snicker) with his buddy, Ernie (Michael Stoyanov). While on the flight, he finds his "number one fan" - a 12-year old Alfred E. Neuman looking kid named Stuey Gluck (Alex Zuckerman), He's constantly referred to as a troll throughout the movie.
Gluck begs Coogan not to promote the toxic stuff, but he ignores the pleas.When they finally land in South America, they stumble across a group of environmental protesters.
Coogan sets his eyes on one cute protester named Julie (Megan Ward).
In an attempt to hook up with Julie, Coogan disguises himself as an accident victim, body bandages and all, and tells her they're also protesters.
She agrees to join them for another protest elsewhere. But as Julie is driving to the next location with them, she figures out it's really Coogan, and now she's stuck with them.
While driving, they decide to make a stop at Freek Land - a local freak show.
When they arrive, they end up kidnapped by the demented proprietor/ scientist, Elijah C. Skuggs (Randy Quaid).
Skuggs turns them into freaks using some green slimey chemical, and keeps them to show them off for his tourists.
While being held captive, they run into other freaks - Ortiz the Dog Boy (Keanu Reeves), a human worm (Derek McGrath), a cowboy that's really a human cow (John Hawkes), a bearded lady (Mr. T), and Sockhead, who actually has a sock puppet for a head (Bobcat Goldthwait), to name some.
Coogan explains in the interview how he and the others managed to escape Freek Land.
Among the stop motion special effects, the jokes and gags, and the makeup, what impressed me was Winter's makeup and dialogue. Half of his face was mutated, and the prosthetic teeth and lips kept him from being able to completely close his mouth. He clearly had to say his lines off-camera, so they could be dubbed in. There's no way he could have spoken coherently without being able to completely close his mouth. It is done so well. His tone matched his mannerisms and body language perfectly. It sounds like a small detail, but I'm sure filming a majority of the movie unable to close his mount was no small feat for Winter. His character drooled and spit a lot after being transformed. I read on IMDB.com that this excessive saliva was real, caused by the prosthetics.
I couldn't take my eyes off this movie. So much went into this movie, or so it seems.
One running joke that made me laugh was the "spiritual connection" between Coogan and Gluck. Through this connection, Coogan is able to show Gluck what he's become, and Gluck makes a crude, childish drawing of what Coogan looks like, all "freaked-out."
He tries to take his drawing and his story to several major newspapers. As he does this, we see the silhouettes of Gluck and each news reporter through the translucent doors of each paper in a film noir fashion. Each one ends up physically throwing him through the glass on the door.
One newspaper does take the story, and offers to pay the kid. When the reporter tells someone off camera "show the kid out." Gluck responds, "I know the way out" and chucks himself out the window. It's funnier when you see it.
I never heard of this movie until about six months ago from the date of this post. I laughed a lot. I was overall entertained. And Alex Winter put a lot into this movie. Through the saliva and heaving makeup, it showed.
There are also two walking Rastafarian eyeballs with guns making sure the freaks don't escape. I'll just lay that little tidbit of movie fact right here, and let the reader deal with it themselves. I just can't explain this part of the movie. It's not lazy writing. I just can't get myself to do it without making it sound less sensical for the reader than it is. Again, two Jamaican eyeballs with guns are walking around FreekLand.
Freaked is definitely for a specific audience. It's as though Alex Winter and Tom Stern had an idea and just went without, throwing caution to the wind. If that was the case, then good for the both of them. They managed to get some big names attached, and...boom! Freaked! They made a legit cult movie. The idea behind it came from both directors' show The Idiot Box.
I don't know if this flick is available on DVD or not. I think it is? Regardless, I found it on YouTube, and watched it that way. I doubt the studio would really care.
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