When fanboy Merv finds an escaped mental patient in his shower, he and best mate Onkey set about creating the perfect serial killer. The only trouble is that their ‘Looney’ is a camp vegetarian.
Imagine a 16 year old film buff trips, falls and cracks his head open on the pavement leaving his brains all over the place. Now imagine that instead of brain matter we could see his thoughts splashed all over the place. That’s about the only way I can even begin to describe what Freak Out resembles.
Definitely one of the most original films I have seen lately, Freak Out looks like early Peter Jackson filmed on the set of 80’s Aussie comedy show Round the Twist, fused with an episode of Spaced.
The gags fly thick and fast, but I personally found the more subtle and visual jokes worked better here, such as the sign which tells us Onkey’s place of employment is called Salem’s Slot, or the signs in the supermarket printed with such gems as ‘You can’t beat our meat’.
The acting really shouldn’t work, but it does, in a Muriel’s Wedding kind of way and come to think of it, nothing else makes sense either although it fits in with the crazy environment set up by the writers. The rather unhealthy obsession with Larry Hagman also made little sense to me, but allowed for some very funny signage regardless.
By far the strongest aspect of Freak Out is its zany aesthetic style and snappy editing as Christian James and his co-horts demonstrate that they are clever and resourceful and they also manage to be highly original, despite using a heck of a lot of stuff from other movies.
OVERALL SUMMARY
I’m really pleased that these guys hard work has paid off, as the task they undertook was no easy feat. The shoot lasted four years but it all paid off, as this hits the streets via Anchor bay DVD on May 29th and the DVD is an excellent package. It’s one of the best value for money releases I’ve ever seen, so make sure you support British indie horror and snap up a copy.
