Freaks of Nature

This may be the goofiest film of 2015, and I had a blast watching it! It's even more fun describing it to a friend.

When it was playing at one local Portland theater, with no local reviews and no advertising I knew I had to check it out.

No spoilers here.I'm just going to say this horror comedy combines vampires, zombies and aliens in a totally original way. Everything is played straight here, this is not just another cheap rip-off.The cast is top notch headlined by Dennis Leary and a very cute Vanessa Hutchins,a number of unknown actors and a few totally unexpected cameos. The film doesn't quite hold together because of various factors,I suspect budget was one of them. Try it, take a chance, you won't regret it.

Comedy version of zombie apocalypse has been done a few times in last year alone, but "Freaks of Nature" has a brilliant idea, throws in vampires and aliens too for good measure. It results in a mishmash of erratic dysfunctional team, in some cases there's literally no sense of what's going on as it occurs too randomly. While the loud noise can be, and quite will be numbing, it does sneak in a few over-the-top comedic moments.

In a town where all monstrosities, and humanity, work in less than harmony, an alien invasion will change all that. This is the same type of nerds or outcasts save the day premise since Elijah Wood rescued the hot girl and defeated the foreign threat in The Faculty, only done in much more bloody chaotic fashion.

Dag (Nicholas Braun) is channeling his child Shia LaBeouf as he stutters, gestures and blurs out his lines in unexpected hero gig, though at this point it's too obvious of a hero set-up it becomes cliché. Petra (Mackenzie Davis) is looking highly uncomfortable with her fake fang and unapproachable issues. These two barely have any chemistry yet the screenplay just clashes them together for romantic subplot.

Lorelei (Vanessa Hudgens) looks like the mandatory wallflower and constantly gives uncomfortable erotic gaze to pretty much everything. Ned (Josh Fadem) is the zombiefied nerd, who actually has more relatable problems although the lumbering shtick feels restraining. Keegan-Michael Key from the Youtube or Comedy Central fame delivers his desperate teacher persona, which is expectedly and exaggeratedly entertaining.

The whole thing reeks of chaos, even though it tries to associate real life social metaphor of acceptance for the undertone of monster theme. It has a few witty moments in expense of the main characters and these are appreciated albeit blatant in delivery. Its abrupt change can be distracting since it tries to pile so many fleshy gore together, then suddenly includes display of nudity.

"Freak of Nature" is the example of outlandishly bloody parody, it's as juvenile as they come but might work momentarily for a mindless fun escapade.

The first 7 minutes or so when I watched it, it felt like a poor spoof film (of Twilight and a bunch of other flicks) so I really wasn't getting into it at all as I really am not a fan of spoof flicks (at least the ones they do these days).

But I decided to give it another go and although a lot of jokes (of which in some scenes every line of dialogue is one) fall flat (the ratio of funny jokes for me would probably be about 1 out of 10) once the action kicks off it still gets rather amusing.

It helps that it moves at a fast pace so you can't focus too much on the flaws.

Teenagers cracking jokes and battling various monsters seem to been a very popular subject in film in 2015 and if you loved DEATHGASM (2015), THE FINAL GIRLS (2015) and SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE APOCALYPSE (2015) I'm sure you will at the very least like this one as they are pretty similar.

Fun kooky movie. Some bloody elements but these are low to the absurd humor of the film. Earnest acting, fun script, and good direction make this a good watch. Horror comedy done well.

Mixing zombies, vampires, and aliens sounded cool enough. With Patton Oswalt, Bob Odenkirk, Denis Leary, Keegan-Michael Key, and Werner Herzog, one would think this could be a really funny movie. Instead, those really funny people all play relatively small roles and we are mostly left with a trio of unfunny heroes plodding around the film.

The town has zombies and vampires mixing in society, mostly at a high school, and none of that ever gets a back story. Attempts at wild comedy don't need to explain too much, especially if it would interfere with the jokes. But this wild comedy never gets wild enough, and it is nowhere near as clever as it portrays itself. Is it really all that funny to kill people around you and then act like it was NBD?

There are funny moments, but not enough LOLz. There also seems to be some attempt at a morality play about classism or racism, as we see humans vs. zombies vs. vampires. Vampire-on-zombie crime is most assuredly despicable, and we should all get along.

This vague social commentary gets mixed with the eternal story font: High School is Tough For Everyone, Even the Popular People. If you don't want to feel, you don't have to: just go be a zombie. If you want to be cool, be a vampire. Whatever you do, just make sure everyone sees, so you can make the scene.

It's a bad sign when Ed Westwick has the best performance in a movie. Nicholaus Braun rattles off his lines like he can't wait to get to the bar. Mackenzie Davis, however, puts in a sincere performance and is a star-to-be.

Freaks of Nature is neither clever enough, funny enough, gross enough, nor serious enough to be much of anything in particular. Even the smooth and dulcet tones of Werner Herzog's voice do little to step up the scene. This is no Cabin in the Woods.