Director: Robbie Pickering
Cast: Nicholas Braun, Mackenzie Davis, Josh Fadem
Release Date: Now Available on Blu-ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10
Synopsis:
In Freaks of Nature, we welcome you to Dillford, where three days ago, everything was peaceful and business as usual: the vampires were at the top of the social order, the zombies were at the bottom, and the humans were getting along in the middle. But this delicate balance was ripped apart when the alien apocalypse arrived in Dillford and put an end to all the harmony. Now it’s humans vs. vampires vs. zombies in all-out, blood-sucking, brain-eating, vamp-staking mortal combat – and all of them are on the run from the aliens. It is up to three teenagers – one human, one vampire, and one zombie – to team up, figure out how to get rid of the interplanetary visitors, and try to restore order to this “normal” little town.
‘Freaks Of Nature’ takes place in the town of Dillford, where supernatural and human residents living amongst each other is a simply normality. With zombies sporting shock collars accompanying the human and vampire students and vampire teachers at the local high school, not to mention the ever famous Riblet treat having put the town on the map, it would take a great deal of insanity for teenager Dag (Braun) to refer to any day as strange. Yet when aliens suddenly arrive above the town, the presently held peace between the Zombies and Vampires shatters and the town erupts into anarchy causing the different types of residents to launch a full out war amongst each other. Now Dag must join forces with two other teenagers, one a zombie and the other a vampire, if they stand any chance of saving their town before it’s too late.
Directed by Robbie Pickering (Natural Selection) from a script by Oren Uziel (22 Jump Street), Pickering does a solid job at the helm of ‘Freaks Of Nature’ which also marks his sophomore directorial effort, delivering a goofy, entertaining and in many ways unique horror-comedy mash up. The cast of ‘Freaks Of Nature’ is comprised of a few somewhat lesser known individuals including Nicholas Braun (Red State), Mackenzie Davis (That Awkward Moment) and Josh Fadem (TV’s Superstore) in the lead roles combined with a supporting cast of notable talent, primarily consisting of comedic individuals and including Denis Leary, Bob Odenkirk, Vanessa Hudgens, Keegan-Michael Key, Patton Oswalt, and Joan Cusack among others, all of whom deliver fitting performances in each of their respective supporting roles, some of which consisting of far more screen time than others.
‘Freaks Of Nature’ is a goofy, occasionally gory and overall highly enjoyable mash-up, not only of the horror and comedy genres, but of many prominent “monsters” commonly frequented within the horror genre itself, merging together into one creative and refreshingly unique wild time with some of your favorite creatures like you’ve never seen them before. Filled with plenty of laughs to keep you giggling throughout and enough bloodshed to satisfy the gore hounds, ‘Freaks Of Nature’ is an erratic and entertaining ride that the genre fans will definitely want to make a point of looking into, as will many of the comedy fans simply for the many hilarious and talented individuals with supporting roles in the film.
Overall, ‘Freaks Of Nature’ is an over the top, often bloody and consistently funny horror-comedy mash up complimented by numerous well known comedic individuals filling out the supporting cast who work perfectly along with the lesser known yet capable trio that portray the lead teens, and guided with obvious passion by director Robbie Pickering. While ‘Freaks Of Nature’ may not be a film that a wide audience will appreciate, I would highly suggest that the genre fans at least make certain to check this one out; it’s definitely worthy of a watch.
VIDEO:
The Blu-ray release of ‘Freaks Of Nature’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks great as a whole, delivering a consistently sharp, detailed and clean video presentation with no notable faults to be found within, holding up impressively even during the numerous darkly lit and fast moving sequences which are fairly common within the film, and never resulting in anything occurring on screen to become negatively affected or rendered indiscernible. Overall, this is an impressive high definition video presentation from Sony that should easily please the masses.
AUDIO:
The Blu-ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless multichannel soundtrack sounds fantastic and definitely contributes some added fun to the film, utilizing all five available channels quite regularly in order to send explosions, debris, cars, zombie moans and any other number of related auditory effects throughout the various channels, yet never causing any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible. Overall, this is a solid 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack that adds yet another layer of fun to this enjoyable romp.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-ray release of ‘Freaks Of Nature’ includes a couple of fun extras. Included on the release is a ‘Gag Reel’ (running approximately 4 minutes in length), along with an ‘Alternate Opening’ (approximately 3 minutes), and a couple of ‘Deleted Scenes’ from the film (4 minutes combined).
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.
Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10
‘Freaks Of Nature’ is Now Available to own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
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