She Freak

source: She Freak

A waitress who has dreams of a better life decides she'd have more fun working for a traveling carnival. Weird choice for a better life, but whatever. Once there, it isn't long before she's courting the rich owner of the carnival freak show. After marrying him, she carries on an affair with the ferris wheel operator behind his back. Everything ends badly for all involved. This is a pretty poor attempt at a remake of Freaks. Instead of actual character development, the film feels content to give us countless scenes via musical montage. The entire courtship between the lead and the freak show guy is a wordless series of scenes set to music. We also have several lengthy scenes of the carnival being set up and then even more of it being taken down. This is sort of neat to see, but it takes up way too much time. The pointless scenes don't stop there, as we also get a cheesy fight midway through. One guy gets a screwdriver through the hand, which would seem pretty serious, but there are no repercussions. Leading lady, Claire Brennen (who unfortunately passed away ten years after this film), was actually quite good in the movie. The ending is decent too as the freaks have their revenge and we see what's become of her. I was really surprised to read that Claire had a romantic relationship with the actor who played the sideshow midget that her character is so disgusted by in the film. Good for them. The film itself is absolutely nothing to write home about. For a better freak-oriented movie, check out Jack Cardiff's The Freakmaker.

Someone had the brilliant idea to remake Todd Browning's "Freaks" in an updated version. Of course, there were two huge problems with that. First, by 1967, the Freak Show had all but disappeared, falling victim to political correctness making the display of people with birth defects and the fact most carnivals found rides to be more economical than hiring said people. So really, by 1967, there were no freaks to be found, save one little person. Second, no one involved in this movie could act worth a darn. Further complicating matters is that there was not 83 minutes worth of movie here. So they filled it out with footage of people taking down and putting up the circus. The real problem is, unlike the other fetishists here, Brownings original material was really awful, and it didn't deserve a remake. Browning was trying to shock with his images, the plot was just an excuse to hang the freak footage on. Here they had no freak footage, so they were hanging material on an empty line.

Brash and slinky small town dinner waitress Jade Cochran (a nicely sassy performance by fetching blonde Claire Brennen) gets a job with a traveling carnival. Jade hooks up with sideshow exhibit owner Steve St. John (Bill McKinney in his sturdy film debut), has a steamy fling with cocky stud Ferris wheel operator Blackie (handsome Lee Raymond), and torments sideshow midget Shorty (an excellent turn by Felix Silla). Director Byron Mabe, working from a compact script by David F. Friedman (who also appears as a carnie barker), relates the sordidly engrossing story at a steady pace, presents a flavorsome seedy atmosphere, neatly captures the restless peripatetic nature of carny life, and grounds the premise in a believable workaday reality. The footage of actual carnival workers and performers provides a certain compelling authenticity. The last shot of Jade as a hideously disfigured freak is quite chilling and horrific, thanks mainly to the convincing grotesque make-up by Harry Thomas. Moreover, the solid acting by the capable cast holds the movie together, with especially commendable work by Brennen, McKinney, Lynn Courtney as friendly dancer Pat 'Moon' Mullins, and Claude Earl Jones as scruffy diner owner Greasy. William G. Troiano's vibrant color cinematography gives this movie an attractive bright look. William Allen Castleman's groovy score hits the swinging spot. A cool item.

This film has absolutely nothing to recommend it. Bad acting, an even worse script, poor cinematography ... you name it, it all flops. Many of the extras were not even aware they were taking part in a film as is evidenced by their staring curiously at the cameras. Unlike even PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, which is so bad it's at least worth some good laughs, this bomb doesn't even rate a good chuckle. An utter waste of celluloid.

This daring flick tells the sordid tale of Jade, a devious, unlikable tramp who's our main character, making this movie so much fun to watch. You see, Jade has a depressing job as a waitress in a greasy diner so greasy the cook is named "Greasy". She dreams of something better, so gets an even more depressing job as a waitress at a greasy carnival. But still she aims higher, so she seduces and marries the owner of the freak show! While this is going on we're treated to lots and lots of footage of the carnival being set up and taken down and set up again (I actually enjoyed that stuff, being a fan of "Death Mask" and "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies). The film-makers were so busy showing how much fun carnivals are that they forgot to have an interesting plot- the freak show owner that Jade seduces hardly has any lines or character, and we never even see the freaks until the very end. The story moves incredibly slow for an hour and twenty minutes, then the freak show owner dies, Jade reveals herself as the bitch she is, and the freaks take their revenge- all in the last five minutes. They saved all the interesting stuff for the end, and then just rushed through it. The "surprise" ending is a surprise only to those who haven't seen Tod Browning's "Freaks", which is superior in every way to this chunk of crap. The freaks take their revenge on Jade by gluing a googly eye to her face and making her wear a Mr. Spock ear, and then spraying her with silly string. Actually, the resulting "She-Freak" is much more attractive than the way Jade started out, as the actress resembles a leathery skeleton in a blonde wig. Did I mention that I hated this movie? I did. Some of it looks neat, and it was probably an influence on Alex Winter's brilliant "Freaked", but overall it's too slow, dull, cheap, poorly acted, and unimaginative to be of any interest. Dullsville, baby, strictly Dullsville.

She-Freak is a remake of Todd Browning's "Freaks" in a way. If you are at all interested in carnivals, carnies, or freaks, I recommend this film. It has a great soundtrack, and hilarious fight scenes. The star is incredibly sexy (until she becomes the She Freak). This is a fine film, and I highly recommend it for any fan of low-budget 1960's horror films.

Complete, total crap. Truly awful. I'd rather ingest my own excrement than sit through it again. Redefines the meaning of the word "bad" (Leonard Pynth- Garnell never endured this). I'd say that watching it was cruel and unusual punishment, but I don't want to give cruelty a bad name. Seriously, we're talking Amateur Hour at the Film School for Living Brain Donors from frame one. The story begins about ten minutes before it ends -- and even then, nearly every shot crosses the line or is awful in some other way. A pathetic, pointless, incompetent waste of celluloid. Other than that, not too bad.

There are some films that are bad, and there is this film which is BAD! Wow! I thought I was getting a horror film but instead I got a docudrama on carnival life. The story picks up a bit at end, and it is really nothing more than a cheap imitation of Tod Browning's Freaks minus credible acting, reasonable storytelling, atmosphere, and class. In fact, the one thing this film could have had going for it was the female lead and another beautiful blonde in a supporting role. They are very attractive women, and just when you think they might drop their top and save this film fiasco, they don't. What more can I say about this film? If you like to see people on rides whilst real bad music plays in the background for what seems an eternity, then She Freak is for you. Watch for producer David Friedman in a small role as a barker.

I guess I can't complain too much, because for all intents and purposes, I got this movie for free. It came with a 'freaks' boxed set through Something Weird video, along with, among other movies, the classic 80's cheesefest BASKET CASE. At the time, purchasing BASKET CASE in this boxed set actually cost less than it did alone, so hey, a good deal is a good deal. And since I bought it, I gave SHE FREAK a day in court and watched it. Unfortunately, it isn't nearly as interesting as BASKET CASE. It's really only slightly more interesting than watching paint dry. SHE FREAK is, near as I can tell, the 1960's remake of the classic freak film FREAKS, directed by Tod Browning. Unlike Browning's movie, however, SHE FREAK contains almost no freaks at all. The biggest problem with this movie is that a grand majority of it contains stock footage of carnivals being set up and taken down, shots of random people on rides, and other such mundane images of fair grounds and carnies. What little story there is revolves around Jade Cochran (the late Claire Brennan), an average-to-homely woman who begins the movie as a coffee shop waitress with high aspirations. After getting fired from her job for not being appreciative enough (if you know what I mean), she finds work at the local carnival, becoming good friends with one of the strippers. She eventually meets and seduces Steve St. John (Bill McKinney) and marries him, although it's made very plain that she's a bit on the easy side, as prior to the marriage she has a little bedroom bam-bam with Blackie Fleming (Lee Raymond), a man egotistical enough to decorate the walls of trailer with his own name in spray paint. Steve St. John, Jade's new husband, is in charge of the freak show, something that deeply disturbs Jade. See, Jade is a bit on the shallow side, thinking more about the material advantages of marrying a man with money and less about the human side of his work trying to make a life for people who might not otherwise have one. Since Steve isn't the most attentive of husbands, Jade's little fling with Blackie continues despite the marriage. Then, one night, the only freak in the movie--a little person named, appropriately, "Shorty"--sees Jade getting it on with Blackie, and while he says nothing, he makes his dislike of Jade as clear as this script is capable of making it. Things escalate (so to speak) from here, with Jade becoming increasingly open about her dislike of the unseen freaks. Unfortunately, as an actor, Claire Brennan was as talented as she was attractive, and when she expresses her disgust she does so with a smile that she holds back with painful difficulty. Soon, Steve St. John catches Blackie after one of Jade's indiscretions, the two of them have a fight, and Blackie stabs Steve to death in a very brief and tame fight scene. Jade then inherits the freak show, and runs it with a cold heart, in contrast to Steve, who considered the freaks close friends of his. Anyway, eventually the freaks catch up to her and deform her in ways that are only possible in the movies, and she ends up becoming the bizarre and twisted creature shown in the SHE FREAK trailers and posters, and the movie ends. That's it. And believe me, this review is far more interesting than the actual movie itself, which should tell you something.