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"...In Freaked, there's a scene where they throw a mutant kid out of an airplane and he falls thousands of feet to smack into the ground. And every time I'm about to trick myself into thinking I have a sophisticated sense of humor, I catch myself rewinding that scene five hundred times."
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Freaked is a 1994 cult movie starring Alex Winter as Ricky Coogan, an arrogant former child actor, and Randy Quaid as Elijah C. Skuggs, a Mad Scientist who turns him into a sideshow freak. It was originally pitched as a low-budget vehicle for the Butthole Surfers.
Tropes used in Freaked include:
- Alien Geometries: The freaks are all kept inside an outhouse, which...is much bigger from the inside.
Ricky: Great use of the space. |
- Applied Phlebotinum: Zygrot-24.
- Bandage Mummy: Ricky disguises himself as one to try and seduce Julie when it's apparent she vehemently opposes his sponsorship of Zygrot-24.
- Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The Macheesmo commercial. It's...just an in-universe commercial that gets played in the middle of the climax.
- Body Horror: 80% of the cast.
- Blood From the Mouth: Happens to Socko after he gets shot by the evil Rastafarian eyeballs with machine guns. Even though he has a sock puppet covering a human hand instead of a head.
- Brick Joke: Early in the film, Ortiz chases after a squirrel, and in doing so, is pursued by the Rastafarian eyeballs. He appears at the very end, having survived, and finally catches the squirrel!
- Ricky fails to complete an important operation, but it's okay, because he nabbed some tasty macaroons! Everyone's happy, save the Worm, who doesn't like them. Turns out those macaroons contained the antidote for the transformation. Everyone turns back to normal...except the Worm, who doesn't like them.
- The Cameo: Gumby and Pokey briefly appear. For some reason, Gumby's pulling his pud and flipping off Skuggs.
- Larry 'Bud' Melman inexplicably appears for a couple of random scenes at the freak show.
- Butthole Surfers vocalist Gibby Haynes is the audience member with the third eye tattoo who points out Socko has a hand under his sock.
- Sam Raimi plays one of the cops on the cheesy TV show that Skuggs watches.
- Director Catherine Hardwicke (who served as production designer) appears as a freak show patron.
- Chekhov's Gun: The macaroons. They contain the cure for Zygrot-induced mutations.
- Companion Cube: One of the freaks is a hammer. It used to be wrench.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The CEO of the EES Corporation.
- Crazy Prepared: Skuggs has a little something just in case of "doublecrossing corporate greaseballs."
- The Dragon: Toad.
- Evil Laugh: Parodied. Turns out Elijah C. Skuggs just can't get enough of The Family Circus.
- There's also "codename: Laughing Man" whose dialogue over the phone is nothing but this.
Skuggs: I'm sorry, can you spell that for me? |
- Evilutionary Biologist: The EES Corporation proposes a deal with Skuggs to use his Zygrot-24-powered freak creator to mutate the working class into brainless drones. "It's a whole new master race! And we own the copyright!"
- Executive Meddling: Originally pitched as an independent gross-out comedy in the vein of Pink Flamingos, the studio forced the makers to deliver a PG-13 movie. The original script was a lot filthier, and many of the freaks had to be rewritten or cut out completely. For example, the 'Human Flame' was originally written as the 'Human Bong'.
- Also, they made the filmmakers change the name of the movie from Hideous Mutant Freekz to Freaked, which Alex Winter and the director hated because it sounded too much like Tod Browning's Freaks.
- Fake Shemp: Mr. T walked off the set a few days before shooting wrapped, so they had to use a stand-in for the Bearded Lady in several scenes, and Lee Arenberg (The Human Flame) had to dub some of his lines.
- Former Child Star: Ricky.
- Funetik Aksent: Everything Skuggs writes is spelled like it sounds. He calls his freak show 'Freek Land', featuring the 'Humin Werm' and 'Dawg Boy.' Even the 'enter' button on his keyboard is labeled 'ENTUR.'
- Gender Bender: The Bearded Lady, played by Mr. T.
- And Skuggs, who turns into Skye Daley.
- Granola Girl: Julie.
- Henry Rollins: Sang the theme song.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Besides the main character being Bill S. Preston, the Human Flame is Pintel.
- Ortiz is played by a completely unrecognizable Keanu Reeves.
- Cowboy is Sol Star from Deadwood.
- Deep Roy appears for a split second during
Juan Valdez'sGeorge Ramirez's mutation into a deformed midget, who is played by Michu Mezaros. He was also Stewie's stunt double. - The EES CEO is the Grim Reaper from Bill and Teds Bogus Journey.
- The Hyena: The Laughing Man.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Nothing can [literally] break Stewie Gluck, and an awful lot of things try to.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: The 'Hideous Frog Man' is just a guy in a scuba outfit. Who happens to be French.
- In a somewhat more obscure pun, there's a pair of Jamaican-accented faceless eyes named Eye and N. Eye.
- Karmic Transformation: Skuggs mutates the EES executives into a giant shoe. A giant, moaning flesh shoe.
- Killed Off for Real: Sockhead. He panics and is promptly gunned down by the Rastafarian eyeballs. Averted with Ortiz, who managed to inadvertently escape.
- Large Ham: Keanu Reeves (yes, seriously) as Ortiz.
- Made of Plasticine: In one scene, an enraged Rick pulls off a man's head like it's a wine cork, even with the appropriate accompanying sound.
- May Contain Evil: Zygrot-24.
- Mega Corp: The Everything Except Shoes Corporation.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Having their bodies fused causes Ernie and Julie to take on mannerisms of the other, with Ernie at one point going through menstrual mood swings.
- Morality Pet: Stewie tries to be this for Ricky, but he's just too much of a Jerkass. Until he finally lets the little troll into his heart.
- Multiple Head Case: Julie and Ernie get turned into one of these.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: All of the freaks attempt to escape by dressing in milkman uniforms. At the same time.
- Rule of Funny: Pretty much what the entire film is running on.
- Severely Specialized Store: Everything Except Shoes, of course.
- Shout-Out: Ghost Dude (Bill and Teds Bogus Journey).
- Sorry I Left the BGM On: During the A-Team Montage.
- Spiritual Successor: To The Idiot Box, a short-lived sketch comedy show on MTV. The joke at the beginning about the Flying Gimp being destroyed is a reference to a recurring sketch called "Eddie the Flying Gimp from Outer Space."
- Stylistic Suck: The laughably inept crayon drawing of Ricky's mutated form that Stewie tries to get various news organizations to run. Which still somehow works.
- Testosterone Poisoning: "Macheesmo! Real cheese for real men! Now in a handy aluminum dispenser."
- Two-Faced: Ricky Coogan, after being mutated.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Ortiz is counting on this to get most of the freaks snuck out, but thinks that Ricky dressing like a milkman is just one milkman too many, and a knife fight ensues. Skuggs looks out and does note the unusual number of milkmen - and decides that the knife fight is just because it's a really competitive route.
- Verbed Title
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot
- Weekly World News: When Stewie tries to get the info out on what happened to Ricky, they're the only ones who take him seriously and don't throw him out of the window (so Stewie throws himself out the window). Somehow, it works, although the police apparently investigated three other stories in the WWN first.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Stewie, Julie, and many protesters call out Ricky for sponsoring the evil, toxic Zygrot-24.
- With Catlike Tread: The comical version, where the freaks make plenty of noise when enacting Ricky's plan to stop Skuggs but he fails to notice them. And then someone drops a styrofoam cup.