PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

GL84 After arriving at a carnival and finding them to be potential targets of their con game, a group of friends learn the group of freaks has deadly intentions whenever they're double-crossed and try to get out before they all fall victim.This one wasn't really all that memorable, as there's a few problems here. A lot of the main flaws are because it's a cheapo-feeling remake of the original, complete with the same situations, twist and overall feel that it featured, though the results vary slightly in their outcome here. Simply adding a more modern-feeling approach to how they arrive at the circus and their interactions with the group are pretty much the only minor additions to the storyline here to switch this up, but beyond that there's way too much of this feeling like the original to really stand-out all that much. As well, the fact that this familiar set-up takes as long as it does manages to hold off the film's antics to the point that it waits until the end to do anything new by running through the storyline aspects here which instead results in plenty of time simply running around with the freaks before that finale, though that in itself is really just a play on the original outcome. It's really hard to stay interested in what goes on since it's not really doing anything new or really doing anything that makes it interesting when it's going about itself as unless you're put off on the performers just their being odd-looking which gets old really fast, and really sets up the films' best parts. The ending is really where it gets all that back with some good kills, plenty of chilling stalking around the carnival setting which is really utilized to perfection at really getting some creepy moments in here and a fairly good use of gore in the graphic kills throughout here. Along with the make-up done here that's combined nicely with the real-live freaks for more good stuff, what helps here is that the initial cause of the retribution here is so justified it pumps up the action more by really taking it all out into a great series of scenes that sell this nicely for the film. Added with the great nudity on display, it's enough to make it watchable but just feels a little too late though.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Nudity

Caz1964 I've always been a big fan of the film Freaks and think it was very ahead of its time although in its day it was thought disturbing. Freakshow stays near to the originals plot but as a story it loses its moral,in the original you care for the unfortunates of the title and they are the heroes of the film.In Freakshow there is very little character development and you really couldn't care less about them,as they are neither likable or admirable and towards the last 10 minutes of the film they turn out to be bigger sadists than those who portrayed the villains,so i really couldn't see the moral of the story,it all seemed more like a film of revenge and sadism. The last 10 minutes of the film was so unnecessary with the girl Lucy {baring in mind she hadnt actually killed anyone herself}being gruesomely hacked at so that she could be turned into a freak,i thought they were just going to cut her tongue out but oh no that was only the beginning,i couldn't believe how long this scene went on for or what they were going to stop at.It was also silly really as no one would survive all that blood loss. Very pointless

Paul Andrews Freakshow is set in a circus where Lon (Christopher Adamson) runs a freak show, scheming blonde tart Lucy (Rebekah Kochan) & her slimy boyfriend Lee (Mark Preston Miller) decide to rip him off. They devise a plan where Lucy seduces Lan, gets him to propose to her & then kill him off leaving her to inherit all of his money so she & Lee can live happily ever after, simple eh? What could go wrong? Well, Lucy gets cold feet & her murderous plan is discovered & the freaks want revenge...Directed by Drew Bell & although uncredited & unacknowledged Freakshow is a remake of Tod Browning's controversial classic black and white horror flick Freaks (1932), not wishing to put to fine a point on it Freakshow is frankly crap. The script by Keith Leopard is pretty faithful to Browning's original but with several changes, the basic story of a 'normal' person trying to exploit the freaks by marrying into their number is still present & correct but it's the character's which are the main difference. In the original the Lan character was a midget called Hans & he is presented as a naive lovestruck child, someone to sympathise with & feel sorry for, here in Freakshow Lan is depicted as nothing more than a dirty old man who wants a nice young blonde girl to give him a blow job when he wants, motivation which just doesn't entice the same sort of feelings towards him. In the original the Lucy character was named Cleopatra & again in a way you could see that she was evil but wanted a good life of her own with her boyfriend, here Lucy is just a slut who is used by both Lan to get a blow job & by her boyfriend to help him steal Lan's money & she falls for it. In the original the freaks themselves were proper character's, here they are just a collection of amputees missing various limbs, dwarfs, retards, a strongman & a half-man half-woman thing who barely feature. The dialogue is poor, the character's turn the original story from a sometimes moving piece involving real people into a standard low budget horror where you don't care about anyone & to top it all off it's seriously slow & boring with virtually no exploitation or gore at all. There's one bit in this I don't get, Lucy refuses to drink out of a bowl that the freaks had just drank out of fearing drinking their spit, however it is also shown that Lucy has no problem having sex or giving a blow job to a man old enough to be her dad & literally covered in warts & boils!Director Bell does nothing to make this watchable, the entire circus consists of three tents, one carousel & a ferris wheel which no-one ever visits! This film has the most number of slow, boring & utterly pointless fades to black at the end of a scene I've ever seen in a single film, it also has some utterly awful gramophone style 20's & 30's music constantly playing on the soundtrack to maybe try & evoke an atmosphere like the original 1932 version? The film is also shot in a sepia tone (again maybe to try & mimic the original black and white original) which gives everything a candle lit orange type hue, like yeah that's original isn't it? There's very, very little gore here, the filmmakers hired some of those masochist type guy's who hang themselves on hooks which piece their skin & can be found just about everywhere to do several hooks piecing the skin on their backs type scenes, there's a bit when someone cuts a girls scalp off, someone head is bashed in (off screen), someone is hit with a wrench (off screen), someone is stabbed with a knife, someone has part of their throat bitten out & the end sequence which doesn't last that long & is again full of annoying slow fade to black shots when Lucy has her lips sewn shut, the skin on her body sliced off as well as the skin on her face in a scene which is much less effective than a similar one in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986).With a supposed budget of $1,000,000 one has to say Freakshow felt like it had a lower budget than that & I wouldn't be surprised if it was. It looks grubby & cheap with horrible music, annoying editing, poor special effects & a circus which consists of about three tents in a field. The acting sucks as well.Freakshow is a terrible film to be sure, it's one of those films which promises much but delivers nothing. There's no gore for 80 minutes, the character's are awful & if you don't think that matters watch the original again & see the difference. It's throughly boring to sit through as well, one to avoid.

acv6406 Last 10 minutes of the movie were completely unnecessary... It was like watching a surgery, a nasty surgery... n btw I'm sure a person could die from that much blood loss, or at the very least pass out.I don't particularly like scary movies, and this is a perfect example of why, because they're stupid, but I wanted to see this because I do like the original Freaks. The success in that movie was they left the gore to the imagination, and otherwise told a story-- that's something today's movie have no concept of. Everything is all shock appeal, and the success of a horror movie is merited to the one that makes you want to vomit the most.The other comments were right, there is zero character development. Characters get hurt, and die gory deaths, and you really don't care, there is no effort in the screenplay to pull the movie watcher into the film; they just want to gross you out. I forced myself to not be grossed out by the last 10 minutes because I didn't want to give the makers the satisfaction of achieving that from me for this stupid movie, which had the potential to be a lot more.