Freak

⭐ 1/5 - A Masterclass in What Not to Do in Screenwriting

I genuinely don't know where to begin with this disaster of a film. It's as if the writer sat down, tossed a bunch of clichés in a blender, hit "purée," and called it a script. The plot goes nowhere, the characters have the depth of a kiddie pool, and the dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who's never had a real conversation in their life.

There's no structure, no payoff, and no emotional weight to anything that happens. Every single twist was either painfully obvious or completely nonsensical-pick a lane! The pacing drags when it should move, and rushes when it should breathe. You don't root for anyone, because the writer clearly didn't care enough to make them human in the first place.

Honestly, it felt like a first draft that accidentally made it to the screen. This wasn't a movie-it was a slow-motion trainwreck held together by bad decisions and worse writing. The fact that this got greenlit is the real mystery here.

If you like movies where you don't really know what's happening, and it's hard to tell what is real and what's not, then this one just might be for you. Otherwise, I'd recommend skipping it. I gave this 2 stars because it's pretty well shot, the effects are decent, and the acting pretty good, but the story is just really, really confusing. The big picture, which is given in the synopsis is exactly what happens: "Following an incident Ava retreats to a remote cabin in the woods to escape, but the longer she stays, the more she realizes that her nightmare has only just begun".

That's a 100% accurate description of what this movie is about, but it's mostly just her having a total break with reality. If you like to look for metaphors in movies, maybe this would be more interesting than it was to me.

Trying to get her life in order, a woman decides to destress from the world and head out to a remote family-owned cabin in the woods to try to come to terms with everything, but the longer she's there the more she comes to realize her sanity might be in more danger than she realized.

Overall, this was a rather solid psychological genre effort. What this one does incredibly well is effectively utilize the concept of her being isolated away from everyone at the cabin to descend into mental insanity. The setup involving her getting there while being tormented by the dreams of the missing girl, the haunting visions and hallucinations of her being alone in the room engaging with the other woman that constantly informs her of the various situations that affect her mental sanity and the arrival of her sister with her own problems manages to combine together into a setup that is quite unnerving and chilling overall. Given the few other touches that are added on, with the sisterly dynamic at play hinting at something far deeper that bonds them together yet remains unmentioned as well as the mentions of the serial killer in the area, the eventual snap in her sanity here is handled incredibly well. This leads nicely into the films' other rather enjoyable facets here with the engrossing supernatural-style sequences here designed to further her mental break by showcasing the effect the cabin has on her. The hallucinations being built up, from dreaming of the figure wandering around the cabin with her showing her reminders of the fateful crash that's plaguing her, the idea of her mother coming to taunt her for her decision-making skills, and various other bits highlighting the fact that staying at the cabin is a bad idea, all come together to be visually arresting while also giving the film some genuinely creepy scenes at times. As well, with a dark finale that offers another rather chilling hallucination as well as the confrontation with the demonic figure in the basement that provides some shockingly fun gore effects for the attacking creature and the various kills that transpire, this one does manage to get some likable qualities here. There are a few issues with this one that holds it back. One of the main issues present is the films' favoring of psychologically destroying her sanity which takes precedence over the scares here. Since this is reluctant to engage in scares except for her visions, this one features moments that feel like padding that cause the pace to feel sluggish that's almost borderline criminal on a film this short where that shouldn't be the case. Scenes like her dancing around the kitchen singing while doing dishes or talking with her sister while smoking for several minutes serve no function in the film for the most point, while the series of repeated finales at the end also manage to drag this one out beyond its usefulness. As well, the finale also manages to feel far more chaotic and discordant than it really should with no real tie-in to the previous events and lands with a somewhat disappointing thud as if there was no additional money to finish the concept. These are what hold it back overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, and mild drug use.