IMDb RATING
5.3/10
2.2K
YOUR RATING
A scientist experiments with crossing humans and plants, for which he uses his students.A scientist experiments with crossing humans and plants, for which he uses his students.A scientist experiments with crossing humans and plants, for which he uses his students.
Toby Lenon
- Tramp
- (as Toby Lennon)
John Wireford
- Policeman
- (as John Wreford)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaActor Michael Dunn died in London during the film's production, but had completed all of his scenes before he died. He was just 38 years old.
- GoofsIn the film, as Tony attacks Professor Nolter, gaps in his mutated body costume become visible a few times and reveal light-colored underclothes, particularly under his chin.
- Alternate versionsSome version of the film are titled "The Freakmaker" including the restored version released on the Amazon Streaming Service
- ConnectionsFeatured in Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987)
- SoundtracksWorlds Within Worlds Parts III and IV
By Basil Kirchin
(special musical effects)
Regal Zonophone LP
Featured review
I first became aware of this one from my, somewhat inaccurately named book, Sci-Fi Now which charted the science fiction which fell between 2001 and Star Wars. It turns out that this was a great era for the genre, seeing as the sci-fi in this period just seemed to go a bit weird. The Freakmaker on the other hand, seems to have resurrected that sub-category which was seriously antiquated even back in the 70's - the mad scientist movie. The story has the mad scientist abduct college students to use in his experiments where he is trying to create a crossbreed of human and plant; with his failed subjects being handed over to a circus to be used in their freak show.
This could be described as Frankenstein meets Freaks, with quite a heavy emphasis on the latter 30's Tod Browning classic. It even goes so far as to basically recreate scenes from that film, as well as finding roles for several actual sideshow freaks. To that end, we have a human skeleton, a human pincushion, the pretzel boy, Popeye (i.e. He really can pop his eyes out!), the frog boy, alligator skin woman and a good old bearded lady. We even get a section where we see an exhibition featuring these performers, so its pretty exploitative while being somewhat fascinating at the same time. Acting honours go to the ever-reliable pair, Donald Pleasence and future Dr Who Tom Baker; with the former going through the motions and given little to do, other than feed cute bunnies to giant carnivorous plants, while Tom Baker has a much more rounded part as a deformed self-loathing henchman afflicted with acromegaly. The story eventually has one of Pleasence's creations running amok through the town - it's a rubber-suited wonder which is half-man/half Venus flytrap, a man/plant, or as I prefer to call him, a mlant. There is a fair bit of things to like in this one, even if it does become increasing less interesting in its final third. Look out too, for the impressive opening credits sequence which features some nicely executed time-lapse photography plant action.
This could be described as Frankenstein meets Freaks, with quite a heavy emphasis on the latter 30's Tod Browning classic. It even goes so far as to basically recreate scenes from that film, as well as finding roles for several actual sideshow freaks. To that end, we have a human skeleton, a human pincushion, the pretzel boy, Popeye (i.e. He really can pop his eyes out!), the frog boy, alligator skin woman and a good old bearded lady. We even get a section where we see an exhibition featuring these performers, so its pretty exploitative while being somewhat fascinating at the same time. Acting honours go to the ever-reliable pair, Donald Pleasence and future Dr Who Tom Baker; with the former going through the motions and given little to do, other than feed cute bunnies to giant carnivorous plants, while Tom Baker has a much more rounded part as a deformed self-loathing henchman afflicted with acromegaly. The story eventually has one of Pleasence's creations running amok through the town - it's a rubber-suited wonder which is half-man/half Venus flytrap, a man/plant, or as I prefer to call him, a mlant. There is a fair bit of things to like in this one, even if it does become increasing less interesting in its final third. Look out too, for the impressive opening credits sequence which features some nicely executed time-lapse photography plant action.
- Red-Barracuda
- Dec 11, 2022
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- The Freakmaker
- Filming locations
- Oakley Court, Windsor Road, Oakley Green, Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK(Dr. Nolter's residence and lab)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- £400,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 32 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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