FreakedFreaked is a film that essentially got zero backing from its respective studio and was sent to the dreaded film purgatory that is "straight to video". It's easy to see why seeing as Freaked is so ridiculously over the top and loaded with groan inducing puns, along with juvenile humor that it almost feels like watching a bizarro live action Warner Brothers cartoon on drugs. However while Freaked was obviously not mainstream material, it does have the obvious skewed humor/plot of a definite cult classic.
Written, directed and starring Alex Winter (aka Bill from Bill & Ted) Freaked revolves around smarmy movie star Ricky Coogan (famous for his Ghost Dude movies) who decides to be the spokes person for a new type of fertilizer called Zygrote-24 and while on a promotional tour finds himself and some friends trapped in a literal freak show headed by the over blown scenery chewing awesomeness of Randy Quaid as Elijah C. Skuggs. Apparently Skuggs has been using Zygrote-24 to transform people into hideous freaks to be in his freak show. These freaks include: a giant talking cow, Mr. T as the bearded lady, a giant nose, a sock puppet voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait, a dog faced boy, a half man half toad, two giant Rastafarian eyeballs (called I & I) and many more.
Freaked seems to indebted to early Peter Jackson/Sam Raimi schlock fests like Meet the Feebles and Evil Dead; along with zany humor similar to Mad magazine. It's this offbeat screwball cartoon gory comedy that is part of the main charm of Freaked. Also the random cameos (Brooke Shields, Keanu Reeves, Gibby Haynes), monsters that resemble a mish-mash of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and Jim Henson, and a plot that...well let's just say it's pretty unpredictable. Really the only downfall to Freaked is that all of the things I just mentioned above that make it great to some may be exactly why people would hate it. However love it or hate it one thing's for sure Freaked is pretty unforgettable!
-Astroboy
