cryptic_non_sequitur
Joined Apr 2002
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Reviews4
cryptic_non_sequitur's rating
I really liked "Machine Girl", but this short was too ridiculous to enjoy. Somebody must have had some money left over after the main feature was in the can, and wanted to give his girlfriend a little more exposure.
I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy much of Yoshie's training, and her peppy dances, but the plot(?), writing(?) and acting(?) ruined it for me. I would rather have seen a short in which Yoshie was saved from death, and trained to become a good basketball player, in Ami's honor. Or beach volleyball player ... that would have worked, too.
If you watch this, do yourself a favor: ignore the story, and focus on the visuals, if you know what I mean ... and I think you do.
I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy much of Yoshie's training, and her peppy dances, but the plot(?), writing(?) and acting(?) ruined it for me. I would rather have seen a short in which Yoshie was saved from death, and trained to become a good basketball player, in Ami's honor. Or beach volleyball player ... that would have worked, too.
If you watch this, do yourself a favor: ignore the story, and focus on the visuals, if you know what I mean ... and I think you do.
Anyone going into this movie expecting a 21st century gore-fest is going to be disappointed, but that is because they don't understand what this movie IS: it is an update to the controversial Freaks, staying true to the original while taking advantage of modern cinematography and special effects and recognizing its modern audience. As a faithful update, Freakshow hits all the marks, while being explicit about some of the elements of the movie that had to be left to the imagination in the 1930's--most notably, nudity and gore.
This is a horror movie because it is horrifying in its implications and resolution, not because it features the usual bunch of attractive young people being stalked and slaughtered by some 'horror'. The horror here is psychological, and shows the extremes that an 'extended family' will go to in order to avenge and protect itself. The most horrific aspect of this movie was the fate of Little Kimmie, who wasn't intelligent enough to quit laughing in the face of death. Kimmie was the most innocent of all, and certainly did not deserve her fate any more than she understood her situation.
As for the villains: yes, they met terrible fates, but only one of them was particularly gory. The camera did not focus on the gore so much as it did on the swift and purposeful justice that was being meted out. Gore-hounds will feel cheated, of course, but the gore was not the point of the movie.
The fate of Lucy was virtually identical to the fate of the scheming woman in the original. The difference was simply that we had to imagine the process in Freaks, while we could see it in Freakshow. Even so, it could have been much more graphic and exploitative, but that, again, was not the point. The point was that these people had genuinely accepted Lucy as one of them, and her punishment for deluding and rejecting them was appropriate. And as Sherri said, she had to earn her keep ...
Freakshow is a period piece, and the cinematography and soundtrack successfully expressed the setting. The acting, like the story and the gore, were intentionally understated (and better than the original, in my opinion). The drama was human drama, not freak drama, because the characters were human beings.
If you haven't seen Freaks, and especially if you haven't seen it because it is 'in black-and-white', then you can't really appreciate this movie for what it is. Put into the proper perspective as an update to Freaks, it is hard for me to imagine how it could have been better ...
This is a horror movie because it is horrifying in its implications and resolution, not because it features the usual bunch of attractive young people being stalked and slaughtered by some 'horror'. The horror here is psychological, and shows the extremes that an 'extended family' will go to in order to avenge and protect itself. The most horrific aspect of this movie was the fate of Little Kimmie, who wasn't intelligent enough to quit laughing in the face of death. Kimmie was the most innocent of all, and certainly did not deserve her fate any more than she understood her situation.
As for the villains: yes, they met terrible fates, but only one of them was particularly gory. The camera did not focus on the gore so much as it did on the swift and purposeful justice that was being meted out. Gore-hounds will feel cheated, of course, but the gore was not the point of the movie.
The fate of Lucy was virtually identical to the fate of the scheming woman in the original. The difference was simply that we had to imagine the process in Freaks, while we could see it in Freakshow. Even so, it could have been much more graphic and exploitative, but that, again, was not the point. The point was that these people had genuinely accepted Lucy as one of them, and her punishment for deluding and rejecting them was appropriate. And as Sherri said, she had to earn her keep ...
Freakshow is a period piece, and the cinematography and soundtrack successfully expressed the setting. The acting, like the story and the gore, were intentionally understated (and better than the original, in my opinion). The drama was human drama, not freak drama, because the characters were human beings.
If you haven't seen Freaks, and especially if you haven't seen it because it is 'in black-and-white', then you can't really appreciate this movie for what it is. Put into the proper perspective as an update to Freaks, it is hard for me to imagine how it could have been better ...