Freaks of Nature

"Freaks of Nature" had it all, literally, it had it all. Zombies, vampires, werewolves and aliens. The only thing that was missing was robots. Now, one might think with a mix of that many iconic movie creatures thrown together, that it might be a bit too much. But it wasn't! And "Freaks of Nature" turned out to be a very entertaining movie.

The movie starts out in a fast pace, and the audience is introduced to a world where vampires and zombies live among the living humans. Then on one fateful night, aliens show up and that upsets the balance of the world, causing the vampires, zombies and humans to turn against one another in a chaotic surge of violence.

The characters in the movie were nicely detailed, lots of characteristics and personalities. Plus the people hired to portray the various characters were doing great jobs with their given roles. It was a nice touch to see Denis Leary, Keegan-Michael Key and Bob Odenkirk in the movie as well. The three lead talents, Nicholas Braun (playing Dag), Mackenzie Davis (playing Petra) and Josh Fadem (playing Ned) really carried the movie quite well.

The story is good, filled with action and humor, and the effects are great as well. And having good special effects in a creature feature is a make or break deal, and I am glad to say that the special effects team really pulled their weight here and came through where it counted.

The whole mixture of aliens, humans, vampires and zombies in one movie was really good. It was surreal, for sure, but it was highly entertaining.

There has been a good addition of zombie comedies to the zombie genre in the recent years, and "Freaks of Nature" does rank high on the list, right alongside with "Shaun of the Dead", "Zombies of Mass Destruction" and "Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse".

Comedy version of zombie apocalypse has been done a few times in last year alone, but "Freaks of Nature" has a brilliant idea, throws in vampires and aliens too for good measure. It results in a mishmash of erratic dysfunctional team, in some cases there's literally no sense of what's going on as it occurs too randomly. While the loud noise can be, and quite will be numbing, it does sneak in a few over-the-top comedic moments.

In a town where all monstrosities, and humanity, work in less than harmony, an alien invasion will change all that. This is the same type of nerds or outcasts save the day premise since Elijah Wood rescued the hot girl and defeated the foreign threat in The Faculty, only done in much more bloody chaotic fashion.

Dag (Nicholas Braun) is channeling his child Shia LaBeouf as he stutters, gestures and blurs out his lines in unexpected hero gig, though at this point it's too obvious of a hero set-up it becomes cliché. Petra (Mackenzie Davis) is looking highly uncomfortable with her fake fang and unapproachable issues. These two barely have any chemistry yet the screenplay just clashes them together for romantic subplot.

Lorelei (Vanessa Hudgens) looks like the mandatory wallflower and constantly gives uncomfortable erotic gaze to pretty much everything. Ned (Josh Fadem) is the zombiefied nerd, who actually has more relatable problems although the lumbering shtick feels restraining. Keegan-Michael Key from the Youtube or Comedy Central fame delivers his desperate teacher persona, which is expectedly and exaggeratedly entertaining.

The whole thing reeks of chaos, even though it tries to associate real life social metaphor of acceptance for the undertone of monster theme. It has a few witty moments in expense of the main characters and these are appreciated albeit blatant in delivery. Its abrupt change can be distracting since it tries to pile so many fleshy gore together, then suddenly includes display of nudity.

"Freak of Nature" is the example of outlandishly bloody parody, it's as juvenile as they come but might work momentarily for a mindless fun escapade.

The first 7 minutes or so when I watched it, it felt like a poor spoof film (of Twilight and a bunch of other flicks) so I really wasn't getting into it at all as I really am not a fan of spoof flicks (at least the ones they do these days).

But I decided to give it another go and although a lot of jokes (of which in some scenes every line of dialogue is one) fall flat (the ratio of funny jokes for me would probably be about 1 out of 10) once the action kicks off it still gets rather amusing.

It helps that it moves at a fast pace so you can't focus too much on the flaws.

Teenagers cracking jokes and battling various monsters seem to been a very popular subject in film in 2015 and if you loved DEATHGASM (2015), THE FINAL GIRLS (2015) and SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE APOCALYPSE (2015) I'm sure you will at the very least like this one as they are pretty similar.

This really is a freak show with it's flows. I mean, sometimes it's funny especially with the zombies. Just look at the conversation at the end between Ned and his father. There are parts sadly that are a bit boring with long conversations that doesn't really add a thing and aren't funny. On the other hand we do have gory parts when the vamps do come in.

Was it a funny movie? For me not really, it do has funny moments as I said but again, the gore adds toward the fun, just look how a tough guy is been eaten by zombies. And look how vamps explode in full bloom when spiked.

This flick do deliver on the part of the effects. The zombies all look stunning and the aliens do look great as do their mother ship. A big hooray for the effects. It sure is above mediocre over all and it's the acting of the zombie Ned by Josh Fadem that makes it worth seeing.

Like the story is full of freaks and good and bad parts I'm stuck with mixed emotions, still I will recommend it because it do has things for everyone out their, if you're a horror buff of course.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 2/5

This may be the goofiest film of 2015, and I had a blast watching it! It's even more fun describing it to a friend.

When it was playing at one local Portland theater, with no local reviews and no advertising I knew I had to check it out.

No spoilers here.I'm just going to say this horror comedy combines vampires, zombies and aliens in a totally original way. Everything is played straight here, this is not just another cheap rip-off.The cast is top notch headlined by Dennis Leary and a very cute Vanessa Hutchins,a number of unknown actors and a few totally unexpected cameos. The film doesn't quite hold together because of various factors,I suspect budget was one of them. Try it, take a chance, you won't regret it.