Freaks Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Freaks Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 12, 2019

Note: Part of the fun of Freaks is not knowing exactly what's going on, at least for a little while. It's impossible to discuss the plot mechanics of the film without mentioning some spoiler material, so those who want to approach Freaks "uninformed" are encouraged to skip down to the technical assessment of the disc, below.

Film fans with a penchant for history may know that a 1932 film called Freaks pretty much brought Tod Browning’s directorial career to a screeching halt. This 2018 film bearing the same title will, if anything, catapult its co- directors (and co-writers) Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein into at least the “talent deserving wider recognition” category, if not immediately onto whatever A-list guarantees that their next feature will be macro-budgeted. Freaks is a kind of curious blend of science fiction and an almost horror ambience, though at its core it’s the story of a family in crisis, which gives the film its undeniably intimate and heartfelt impact. It takes a while to fully ferret out what’s actually going on in Freaks, but as the film begins little Chloe Lewis (Lexy Kolker) seems to be a captive in her own kind of dilapidated house, held there by her father Henry (Emile Hirsch), who may or may not be under the sway of some paranoiac mental issues. Henry keeps warning Chloe to stay away from the windows, scaring the little girl with stories of the bad people who are just waiting to harm her if she strays even a little from his protective advice. Something evil seems to be in wait outside of the Lewis household, at least in Henry’s mind, and the first part of the film establishes the claustrophobic atmosphere of the domicile while also delving into some kind of weird role playing that Henry engages Chloe in, where she recites facts and figures about some kind of alternate ID Henry wants her to assume. It’s all rather strange, and gives the first act of this film a deliberately hallucinatory tone.

Chloe of course keeps disobeying her father, peeking out of the window to catch sight of an ice cream truck which seems to be permanently parked outside of her home, and also at some birds which seem kind of weirdly frozen in midair. When a little neighbor girl approaches the truck, Chloe begins chanting “bring me ice cream, bring me ice cream”, which the neighbor girl dutifully does, much to the horror of Henry. An awkward interchange between Henry, the girl, and the girl’s mother then occurs, but the subtextual writing is already on the wall — Chloe has some kind of unusual power(s) at her command.

Suffice it to say that after arguably a bit too much interstitial material, Chloe ventures out into the big, wide world, meeting the elderly man driving the ice cream truck, who initially identifies himself as Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern), but who kind of predictably ends up being Chloe’s grandfather, Alan. As Alan begins driving Chloe around the city, the camera catches billboards warning people to call the police if they spot anyone unusual, with the poster offering a picture of a man who is kind of horrifyingly bleeding from one eye, in a visual trope that may remind some horror fans of The Strain: The Complete First Season. Slowly but surely, the context of all this craziness is revealed, with what has evidently been a several year rise of “mutants” with special abilities (think X-Men, though considerably tamped down and without all of the aliases). The government has been trying to root out this “new breed”, and has supposedly transported many of them to a “haven” called Mount Madoc. The allusions to current day tribulations involving so-called “illegal aliens” is hard to miss and is no doubt intentional.

Playing into the mutant storyline is a recurring emphasis on Chloe's telepathic abilities, something that allows her to make contact with her supposedly dead mother Mary (Amanda Crew), as well as the little neighbor girl across the street (to widely divergent outcomes). The film arguably gets into silliness in its third act, with a kind of quasi-ICE agent poking her nose around the Lewis house, and the climax is unabashedly overblown to the point of ridiculousness. But Freaks still manages to deliver some great moments, and it certainly augurs the arrival not just of its co-writers and co-directors, but of a child actress of unique abilities (superhuman or otherwise), Lexy Kolker. Years ago I went out on a limb and predicted an actress by the name of Jennifer Lawrence or something was not only going to get an Academy Award nomination for Winter's Bone, she was destined for a major film career. I'm about to make a similar prediction here. While I'm not sure Kolker's work will get recognized by the Academy* (especially since she should be submitted as Leading Actress, but due to her age would probably be consigned to Supporting Actress), but one way or the other, she is (as some wag once termed it) talent deserving wider recognition.

* Freaks evidently screened at TIFF in 2018, but didn't have its official United States release until quite recently in 2019 (if some online sources are to be believed), which I think makes it eligible for the nominations that will be announced in a few weeks.

Freaks Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Freaks is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. The IMDb is once again "silent" on technical aspects, but I managed to track down some Instagram posts about the film which contain a number of #Alexa hashtags, so I'm assuming some Alexa models were used, and that everything was finished at a 2K DI. There's a deliberately hallucinogenic aspect to quite a bit of the imagery here, something that, when combined with some pretty dark sequences inside the house, can lead to general murkiness and a lack of really fulsome fine detail. When things venture outside, the palette warms considerably and detail levels also perk up measurably. A prevalence of extreme close-ups tends to help fine detail levels even when odd framings and various lens effects are being utilized. Unfortunately this is another release from Well Go USA where videophiles may be able to spot some transitory but noticeable banding.

Freaks Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Freaks features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that actually does manage to muster some decent surround activity despite the fact that so much of the film takes place within the cloistered, claustrophobic confines of the Lewis household. There are some nicely rendered directional effects in scenes like the one where Chloe suddenly hears muffled sounds of kids playing, and then she kind of "merges" with the neighbor girl's slumber party. A very late moment involving a government drone strike also provides a burst of panning and LFE. Dialogue, effects and score are all rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track.

Freaks Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 15:29) has some fun candid footage and good interview snippets, including with the adorable Lexy Kolker.


• Teaser Trailer (1080p; 1:35)


• Trailer (1080p; 1:58)


• Director's Commentary can be found under the Setup Menu, and is listed with a singular possessive the way I've reproduced it here, for your grammarians out there on the hunt for typos.

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically (so that clicking on the Behind the Scenes featurette is essentially a Play All button. After the Trailer for this film plays, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Freaks Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Judging by this release and a few others, along with at least one trailer included on this Blu-ray touting another upcoming Well Go USA release, it seems like this label is trying to expand beyond its long held niche as a provider of Asian films in particular. Freaks may not completely hold together, and it arguably goes over the top in its third act, but it's rather riveting in its own way, and it introduces the world to the fine work of young Lexy Kolker, who is able to convey both naivete and a certain menace to rather potent effect. Technical merits are generally solid, and Freaks comes Recommended.