My Review of "Freaks"

I didn't know what to make of Freaks when I first saw the title appear on Netflix. From reading the description of the movie it seemed to be about some overbearing father protecting his child. The further I went into Freaks it appeared to be much more than that.

This movie came out very quietly in 2018 and I don't think a lot of people got to watch this film let alone hear about it. It sort of starts out in a similar tone to 10 Cloverfield Lane. If you're into that movie this movie will be very interesting to you.

It starts off with a father and child in this really decrepit old house. The father, played by Emile Hirsch, seems to be protecting his daughter from the outside world. The daughter, Chloe, played by Lexy Kolker, is the clueless child that is cooped up in this house for as long as she can remember.

She obviously wants to go out and she knows something funny is going on. There are a bunch of clues that make us the viewers start thinking that maybe this man isn't her father and in fact she's been kidnapped. Emile Hirsch does a fantastic job in making the viewer guess what is really going on. He's wound up and unstable. You can tell there's something going on that needs to be revealed.

Lexy Kolker also does a fantastic job as the child trying to figure out what's actually happening in the world while going through a tough period in her life. Chloe simply wants to interact with others her age.

Soon little bits of layers of the story start to be revealed. There's a creepy ice cream truck driver, played by Bruce Dern. He is more than he appears to be as well. Pretty soon the viewers realize the whole world is not what it seems and maybe the father was right in the way he was dealing with things.

There are plot twists after plot twists. At times it can be pretty dizzying but they somehow maintained the flow of the movie. I was actually surprised I could keep up with what was going on.

You'll have to really pay attention to what's going on in this movie because they throw information at you a mile a minute. Thankfully they explain it in a clear coherent way. Close to the end the movie tapers off into a simple adventure where we see that there's much more to Chloe than we thought.

It's smart that they had Chloe figure out who she was at the age that she was or else I don't think that the movie would have worked quite as well. There would be more questions as to why she didn't know about herself. It's really hard to write this review without giving too much away. I really don't want to spoil this film because there's a lot to be revealed.

This is a low budget film and you can tell from the start that they would be focusing more on the characters than the craziness that will soon come. I commend the effort that they put into the movie effects seeing as the story is somewhat ambitious for such a low budget movie. At least the atmosphere was there and the acting was well done.

Overall, this movie was a heck of a trip. It does have a very low budget movie feel to it as the special effects are nothing to write about. Really it's the story that we care about and they delivered a compelling story with a ton of twists that will keep you guessing until the very end. It was fun from start to finish and I will have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It might be too much of a head scratcher to recommend to too many of my friends but I enjoyed the ride the first time.