Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

GL84 Running away from her dead-end job, a woman's new job as a waitress for a traveling carnival allows her to meet her husband, though the remaining members of the show aren't impressed with the events and try to bring out her real personality.Actually, this turned out to be quite the disaster of a film that serves as a real remake of the earlier classic that has the same overall plot. That really makes this quite distracting when it's so unoriginal that there's no point in hiding where it got it's influences from and showcases them so readily without the slightest remorse or even attempts to change it at all. By focusing on being so close to the source material, it doesn't develop anything of interest or surprise throughout this as nearly everything that plays out, her mistreatment that causes her to join the troupe to begin with, the budding romance and even how she continually cheats on him during the course of their romance and eventual marriage as well as the rather tired way this is discovered, as all of this is just given such a lame feel overall that there's hardly any suspense driven from this overt story and never gives off anything close to suspense. That the majority of the other screen-time is generating on overlong and exceptionally tedious sequences involving the crew for the circus putting up the festivities themselves, taking down and setting up shops, supports and rides throughout the film that these become the most featured type of scene in the whole movie such is their over-use throughout. All of this makes what should be the film's biggest shock scene, the revenge by the deformed performers for their mistreatment and cruelty, seem like an afterthought in here with the ho-hum manner in which it's dealt out with hardly any effort to build up to this sequence, to deliver it in any way that showcases any suspense at what they're going to do or even any sense of righteousness from it because it's all based on such lame motives it's not worth caring about. About the only thing saving this one is the one female support constantly stripping for her show or shown in states of undress, but not even that can save this one.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence and Brief Nudity.

BA_Harrison Bored diner waitress Jade (Claire Brennen) joins the carnival in search of excitement, where she quickly worms her way into the affections of wealthy freak show manager Steve St. John (Bill McKinney), the carnival's most eligible bachelor. After a whirlwind romance, and a short engagement, the pair get married, but it's not long before Jade is out seeking thrills with loutish ferris wheel foreman Blackie (Lee Raymond), who happily gives her a ride for free. When Steve learns from pal Shorty that his wife is banging Blackie, he confronts the uncouth carnie, only to get a knife in the belly for his troubles. As a result, delighted Jade inherits her late husband's lucrative business, but her hatred and mistreatment of the sideshow's exhibits means it not long before the ruthless ex-waitress gets served her just desserts.She Freak, a virtual remake of Tod Browning's 30s horror classic Freaks, opens with a solid five and a half minutes of carnival footage—shot after tedious shot of carnies plying their trade to happy punters—before eventually getting down to telling a story. Throughout the film, director Byron Mabe continues to make maximum usage of his carnival setting, regularly interrupting the action with further prolonged shots of people risking their lives on rather precarious looking fairground rides while eating unwholesome food purchased from dodgy concession stands. Strip this excess of colourful padding from this cheapo drive-in garbage and there really isn't a whole lot left—certainly nothing to get your average exploitation/horror fan excited about.Considering the film was produced by trashmeister David F. Friedman, whose filmography boasts such legendary titles as Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs!, Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, and Love Camp 7, it should come as no surprise to find that, in terms of style and atmosphere, She Freak is no match for the masterpiece that inspired it; however, it is rather shocking to discover that the film is remarkably light on both sleaze and gore. The bloodletting is limited to an unconvincing screwdriver through the hand during a fight between carnies and there is no sex or nudity to speak of (unless you count off-screen nookie and a few brief glimpses of skin from sexy sideshow stripper Moon, played by Lynn Courtney). Worse still, the film's genuine 'freaks' are limited to one dwarf (Felix Silla, Twiki from Buck Rogers), a sword swallower, and a June Whitfield lookalike who plays with snakes—no match for the collection of genuinely disturbing human oddities that helped make Tod Browning's Freaks such a memorable movie.

Brian Washington I first saw this on an episode of "Real Wild Cinema" and it thoroughly disgusted me. This has to be one of the worst films that was ever put on celluloid. In fact it makes the film that it was inspired by look like Citizen Kane. The acting is lousy and the plot looks like it was written in an hour by a group of people with a sick sense of humor. I hope that this film gets buried somewhere out in the desert where it will never be found.

Vornoff-3 _She Freak_ is certainly one of the more accessible of Friedman's post-HG Lewis movies. Obviously intended to target drive-ins, it lacks the more objectionable (and usually dull) `adult' material of his other pictures, and spends more time on the plot. Other strengths include actors that know their lines and location footage (at a carnival) that offers a bit more visual diversity than is usual in the extreme low-budget 60's field.That said, however, the film is deeply flawed and far from a classic. It is frequently billed as a `remake' of Tod Browning's _Freaks_, which is true to an extent, but not in the way one would hope. Clearly the writer took the concept of a selfish carnival girl who is punished by the freaks for her ill-treatment of one of their number and ran with it. Unfortunately, it did not inspire him to particular heights. The most notable difference between this film and its inspiration is the aspects of carny life upon which they focus. _Freaks_ focused on the title characters – showing their lives and loves, how sideshow freaks were people with feelings who banded together against a world that despised them. _She Freak_, by contrast, seems mostly concerned with the people behind the scenes: the concessioners and `ride boys' and the Grips (or whatever their called in carny talk) that set up and tear down the big show. Something like 10 minutes of footage is sweaty guys working with tent poles, so if that's your thing…As far as sideshow acts are concerned: there's a coochy-dancer (who goes `as far as the law allows,' evidently in a bible-belt state), a sword-swallower, a snake charmer and a fortune-teller. Even the one real `freak' of the film, the unfortunate `Shorty' the midget, gets very little screen time and never performs whatever act he is supposed to have.The other glaring flaw is the character development. The main character, Jade, starts the movie as a bitch, then is re-introduced as a sympathetic character with high hopes, then spends the rest of the movie bouncing back and forth. It got so bad that I started to regard the movie as a Jekyll-and-Hyde tale, with the `bad' Jade progressively screwing up the aspirations of the `good' Jade. But, unlike Stevenson's story, there is no explanation for Jade's dual personality, and no way to predict which side of her would emerge. A more interesting take, had the writer and director been up to the challenge, would have been to portray Jade as starting out nice, but gradually becoming `jaded' (sorry, couldn't help that pun) over the course of events and hard knocks in the carnival, until she went too far and had to be destroyed. Frankly, the `crime' for which she is punished (firing Shorty) does not fit the punishment she earns, and there are other characters in the film that have far more justifiable grievances than the freaks do.One interesting hallmark of the low-budget Friedman approach deserves note. The extended silent sequences, in which the audience is treated to musical montages of images that are supposed to suggest action. Aside from the aforementioned set-up, tear-down sequences, the entire courtship of Jade and her prospective husband is handled in this way. Up until his last two or three scenes, pretty much the only thing this actor says is `Hello.' On the whole, this is actually a good thing. Overall, it's worth it for exploitation completists, and is a watchable film, but not generally recommended.