Thirteen years ago, a vegetarian young boy was set on a path to insanity when his efforts to order his schoolmates about resulted in him being pelted with meat. He swore revenge and now, in the present, he escapes from a mental institution and returns to his old school to find that, erm, it's been demolished some years before. Meanwhile, Merv Doody (James Heathcoate) is a horror film obsessed young man who lives with his grandmother and today is visiting the local video store to stock up on things to watch. The girl behind the counter is overbearingly helpful and keen to get to know Merv better, but he's not interested, it's the films that take up his time...
...or at least it is until his paths cross with the mental patient. This is a work of low budget innovation from director, writer and producer Christian James and his co-writer, co-producer Dan Palmer, who also doubled as star, as he appears as Merv's best friend Onkey. Filmed over a period of four years, it certainly doesn't look as if any expense was spared, sorry, used, but its cheap and cheerful approach extends to the end result, producing an opus that bullets along from one off-colour joke to another.
And regardless of how funny the last joke was, or wasn't as the case may be, rest assured there's another gag or jokey movie reference along in a minute. Or even a second. Not pausing for breath is one of the film's strengths, as once setting up the plot to have Merv and Looney encounter each other (Looney found Merv's dropped video store membership card and phoned him up) Merv's plan forms in his film-twisted mind. He's such a fan of serial killers in fiction, why not make his very own serial killer in real life, never mind that Looney has never killed anyone.
So it is that Onkey embraces the idea as well, and after working out what Looney should wear - boiler suit, potato sack and hockey mask - Merv introduces him to Onkey. Or rather, Looney tries out a spot of his violence on Onkey, but they are all soon fast friends, even if serial killing is beyond Looney as he is more interested in Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Dallas (not Victoria Principal?). His weapon of choice is a spatula, and you'll have the idea by now, as a murderer Looney is completely inept, as inept as Merv and Onkey are at coaching him.
What Freak Out resembles is a fanzine, with the equivalent of jokes scribbled in the margins, and the level of anything goes, take nothing seriously humour. There are certainly dead spots, but every so often you'll be surprised with something so ridiculous it's genuinely funny, such as a stage play based on The Blair Witch Project. If there's a problem, it's that the film makers are having such a whale of a time they seem reluctant to realise when enough is enough and end it as the film carries on for about twenty minutes too long, but considering the finale features Looney turned into a genuine killer wearing a huge Larry Hagman mask, you can honestly say there's not much to rival it in its field. Music by Stuart Fox (and listen to the lyrics of the songs on the soundtrack).
[The 2-disc special edition DVD features two audio commentaries, behind the scenes documentaries, a music video, deleted scenes and much more.]
This movie may be technically shakey but seeing how the gusy behind it made it on a shoestring budget I was very impressed. The script is razor sharp and the editing is eyeball burstingly snappy. Some scenes are a bit grainy due to the 16mm but overall this is the best lil'cult novelty I have seen for a longtime.
I'm proud of the response a film like this gets on the net as it I would much rather see a dozen FREAK OUTs than your usual bland Hollywood comedy fare.
The very few people that seem to have slammed this film have allowed their reviews to leak out envy and hidden agendas, whereas reviews like the one above represent the filmfor how I saw it; a flawed but valiant debut by some soon to be hot talent.
Display comments