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Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Comedy > British > Freak Out (British Horror Comedy)

Freak Out (British Horror Comedy)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

In a new cycle of independent productions about geeks, Christian James’ Freak Out (2005) is a British entry with much promise, but one that unfortunately does not pan out as well as it should have.  The geek here has a best friend who is also not all there, which leads both to try and turn a local kid with mental health issues into a clone of slasher killer/heroes.  This one has a hockey mask.  Instead of turning into Fade To Black or something as mature, it is a comedy and become Weekend At Bernie’s with some potential.

 

This is not to say anyone is dead or this would then be Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry, but the biggest problem is that we are never convinced that Marv the Geek (James Heathercoate) is such a big fan or even knowledgeable about anything to do with Horror.  It should be added that plastering a bedroom set with great posters is not sufficient and this deficiency epitomizes the lack of grace of the screenplay by James and Dan Palmer, who might not be sure if they are just goofing around or making a movie.  Too bad, because the actors are interesting throughout.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is on the soft side, looking like it was shot on video versus film and a bit mixed to boot.  James shot this too.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 mixes are not bad, but the 5.1 is better and there is a real effort to make the surrounds work, even when they do not.  This makes the combination more watchable than it otherwise might have been.  Extras include two audio commentary tracks on the first DVD, then DVD 2 has a making of featurette (it took four years to finish this), piece on Internet critics discussing the film, 17 deleted scenes, spoof film, sketch with all the characters, Music Video tied to the film, effects for the finale to be seen after watching the feature and 5-minutes-long student film.  That is also as ambitious as the feature itself, if not always successful, but I would like to see what James does next.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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