The Freakmaker Movie Review

Don't look now: Freaks are back.

With reissues of the original Freaks and Freaked on DVD, make room for The Freakmaker, a kind of homage/update/remake of Browning's 1932 classic.

The gist this time is a biology professor (Donald Pleasence, really slumming it) who uses his very students as test subjects in his freakmakin' experiments: Namely, crossing humans with various plants. (Think Venus Fly Trap.) There's a carnival freakshow (complete with "One of us!" banquet) and nosy kids snooping into all the nefarious goings on, but basically this is a platform for curious mega-macro nature photography (a la Microcosmos) and atrocious plantlike costumes worn by shambling actors. The finale, when the good doctor gets his comeuppance, is so bad it's almost worth watching the film just to see.

Director Jack Cardiff offers an introduction on the DVD, which also adds two commentary tracks and a making-of featurette.

Aka The Mutations.