Sideshow

While marginally better than most of director Fred Olen Ray's and executive producer Charles Band's most recent output, SIDESHOW still emerges as only a mediocre rendering of a decent concept.

Five teens (two guys and two girls on blind dates and the wheelchair-bound kid brother of one of the boys) spend the evening at a traveling carnival and end up p1ssing off dwarf Abbot Graves (Phil Fondacaro, the contemporary answer to Angelo Rossitto), who runs the "Doctor Graves Horrors of Nature" sideshow exhibit--an attraction which features such freaks as Conjoin-O (a guy with a monster in his belly), Aelita the inside-out girl, Hans the bug boy and Digestina (a woman who lives in a pool of digestive fluid) (?!) Abbot doesn't take too kindly to being pushed around by one of the kids and decides to get even with them all by turning their worst fears or insecurities into reality.

The characters aren't fully developed enough to get elicit much sympathy or interest and their eventual transformations are unfortunately rather predictable (a girl who hates being touched is turned into a doll in a glass cage, another who is insecure about her body is turned into a faceless woman with a nice body, etc.), but the film is reasonably well-made given the budget, the acting is acceptable and the make-up FX by Gabe Bartalos are pretty good. Also bit parts are played by Ray regulars Ross Hagen (as the sheriff), Brinke Stevens (fortune teller), Pete Spellos (freak with a monster in his belly) and Richard Gabai (game huckster).

Someone else called this film a "fable-horror" movie, and I think that fits pretty well. That's the concept at least. A group of teenagers, each with their own vice, catch the eye of a twisted sideshow barker. He decides to teach the teens a lesson by making them part of the freak show. A cool idea, but could have been executed better. The fate for some of the teens is shoved in your face too obviously, while other characters could have been fleshed out more. Also, the ending was a serious let down. No resolution or big twist or anything.

But as a low budget horror movie, it's pretty fun to watch. If you're into cheesy spookfests, you should have a laugh watching this one. I think one of it's faults though... that it takes itself too seriously. It's a silly movie, and if it was a little more self-aware when it comes to that, I think it would have been better. But at least there's enough neat carnival themes and b-movie monster makeup to keep you watching.

Out of the three newest Fullmoon films Im aware of(Dead Hate the Living,Killjoy,and Sideshow) I'd say sideshow is the best out of them. If you like so bad so good horror movies,this one is ok....it doesnt suck,its not a Plan from Outerspace or Troll 2.The dwarf was awfully good and Digestina was HOTTTTTT!!!!!This movie is worthy of a bad movie night with your friends. If you want an actual good horror movie then what the HELL are you doing watching Fullmoon films for? Oh yeah for cheese fans....STAY AWAY FROM DEAD HATE THE LIVING!!!!!

There was a time in the early 2000s when this aired fairly regularly on some cable TV channels. It's how I first came across it, though I never saw the whole movie, and I've been curious to see it ever since. Of course, this was also before I was fully aware of what Full Moon Pictures was. Now that I've watched 'Sideshow' in its entirety for the first time - well, it's safe to say this is far from a horror must-see. On at least some level it's still possible to extract some cheeky fun, but I wish it would have tried even just a little bit harder.

Naturally the chief draw is in the visuals. The makeup, prosthetics, costume design, and effects all look pretty fantastic. Full Moon isn't exactly known for high-brow or well-financed films, yet it seems clear that of everything here, the budget was at least wisely put towards the most important aspects. Less well executed are the fates that befall the characters, and the overall concept is unremarkable - but at least on paper it's a sly little romp.

The problem is that outside of the most fantastical elements, there's a definite paucity of care applied elsewhere. The production design and art direction at large seem to have been approached with a "bare minimum" mindset, and Fred Olen Ray's direction similar feels very hands-off and unbothered. The writing that stitches together the visuals into a narrative form - the dialogue, the scenes, the overall story - is as thin and flat as ancient parchment pressed under cinder blocks; I think an amateur who has never written a screenplay before could probably match if not exceed Benjamin Carr's contribution. The cast is given very little to work with beyond apparent bland descriptions of their characters, so it's hardly surprising that the acting doesn't come off well. Nor is it surprising that the acting depicting the sideshow performers is more nuanced and meaningfully spirited than that for those portraying the hapless teens. It seems like Phil Fondacaro was at least having fun in 'Sideshow,' though from an outside perspective it's just as possible that he was simply high on one illicit substance or another during filming.

In hindsight, one is better off seeing this the way I first did: incomplete, in bits and pieces, with just enough of a glimpse at the visuals to be delighted at the possibilities. Once you actually sit to watch 'Sideshow' all pretense and mystery fall away, and so do the rose-tinted glasses. This may actually have had better results if it were a silent film, for then the visuals would have been further accentuated and the meager storytelling further deemphasized. Oh well. I guess if you stumble across this it's not the worst way to spend 75 minutes, but given that all resources and effort were seemingly expended almost exclusively on the visuals, there's scant inducement to watch this except on a passing whimsy.

The film has kind of a cool concept, but suffers from a poor script and extremely slow pacing. Some of the performers are fun to watch especially with the material they were given. One standout is Jeana Blackman who plays the role of Jeanie. Even with the problems with the script, she manages to bring a depth to her character and finds some very nice moments - especially in the scene where she and Jamie Martz are buying the popcorn.

All told, I'd probably rate this movie a C-/C.