She Freak (1967)

Directed by Byron Mabe [Other horror films: The Bushwhacker (1968), Mystic Mountain Massacre (1971)] & Donn Davison [Other horror films: Honey Britches (1971), The Legend of McCullough’s Mountain (1975)]

Do you all remember Freaks? It’s a pretty classic movie with a generally solid story and a shocking finale for the time. It’s not a personal favorite of mine, but it’s a pretty solid movie.

As for She Freak, though, which is largely based around the same idea, the best word to describe it is ‘ghastly.’

Quite similar to Freaks in multiple ways, it follows one of the most unlikable protagonists in the history of cinema as she leaves her boring life as a waitress to join a carnival, and try to find her riches there. She’s a terrible character – not only is she okay with getting married to a guy just because he’s rich, and then cheating on him multiple times, but she also has zero sympathy for those in the carnival’s ‘freak show,’ and just sets herself up as a terrible person.

To be fair, Claire Brennen does fine in the role. Lee Raymond doesn’t have much in the way of character aside from being eye candy for the ladies, but Bill McKinney actually had some depth to him (though it took a while to find that out). Felix Silla (Cousin Itt from the classic Addams Family and the Polka Dotted Horse from H.R. Pufnstuf) only has a couple of scenes, but I liked him. Lastly, there’s Lynn Courtney, who wasn’t really relevant whatsoever, but she existed, at least.

If you’re wondering why I found this abysmal, though, it doesn’t have much to do with the likability of Brennen’s character. I mean, it wasn’t ideal, but by far the largest problem here is how insanely dull the movie is. It’s not until the final five minutes that we really feel much in the way of tension, and to be honest, tension is a bit strong.

A lot of the film seems to be devoted to showing off the carnival – not only customers walking by or riding the rides, but also setting up and taking down the carnival. Don’t get me wrong – I’m insanely impressed by traveling carnivals, and how they can do that set-up in the time they have – but it doesn’t make for an interesting horror movie. Might make a good documentary, though.

She Freak is a very boring movie. It’s dull, and the characters don’t generally help that much. The ending (which is completely taken from Freaks) isn’t worth the build-up, and the whole of the film is likely to send you into a stupor unless you’re of strong will-power.

There were two scenes I thought were good – in one, there’s a scuffle between two characters, and one of them gets stabbed in the hand with a screwdriver (providing the only blood in the movie). In the other scene, filmed in what I imagine was a helicopter, we get an overhead view of the carnival at nighttime – the neon lights on the rides, just the atmosphere of a busy carnival season – it looked quite beautiful. Honestly, if it weren’t for that scene, they could have just released this in black-and-white, because nowhere else does the addition of color do the movie wonders.

I can sit here and call the movie boring, but unless you see it, you probably won’t fully grasp just how dull so much of this is. And I certainly wouldn’t recommend you do so, but if you enjoy carnival-based horror, maybe this is worth a shot. It’s not remotely a good movie, though, and I’d just stick with Freaks were I you.

3.5/10