Freaks is a 2018 sci-fi movie that premiered at 40 film festival and pulled the Asteroide Award, the top prize at the Trieste Science and Fiction Festival in Italy among many more at others. The film was written and directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein and it follows a father (Emile Hirsch) with a 7-year-old girl (Lexy Kolker), who keeps her housebound for ‘Her own good’ in a world that supposedly wants to hurt them…or is the father hiding something?
Now this premise alone was enough to draw me in. It gave me 10 Cloverfield lane vibes a movie if you haven’t seen, I highly recommend it its the best of the 3 Cloverfield movies. However, even though this movie has a similar premise to Cloverfield lane, the movie has enough of its own ideas, superb performances and brilliant storytelling to deliver a sci-fi movie that may have flown under a lot of radars but I’m sure as the year’s pass will become a cult classic.
First of all, this is a totally non-spoiler review as the less you know about this movie the better, so I suggest watching the movie first then reading this review as I’m not spoiling plot points but honestly if you know nothing the better the movie is.
First of all the highlight of this movie are the performances Kolker, in particular, is a great lead even for a 7-year-old she outshines most child actors that are well known and in the bigger Hollywood movies and delivers a captivating performance that is all Innocent, Mature, Emotional and at times sinister that would carry the movie even if the film sucked. Other performances such as Hirsch as the father and Bruce Dern also stand out and give great performances and disappear into the role they are given.
With this being quite a low budget movie the only thing that the movie falters a little bit is the special effects. However, they are not Birdemic movies bad (Seriously Youtube it) they are good enough to work with the sort of movie this is but if this had a Hollywood budget this movie would be a damn near perfect sci-fi movie however with it having that indie movie vibe I think it gives it a little bit more charm.
I know this one is short but as mentioned several times above this movie is better the less you know the first half hour you are literally “like what the hell is going on?”
Final Score
Title:Great
‘Freaks’ is a great watch for anyone who loves sci-fi, Indie movies or just films that confuse you a little and this movie has everything that makes a great movie; Solid performances, Great story, great visuals and characters and it’s just an all-round great entertaining watch that’s got cult-classic potential.
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