FREAKSHOW

The Asylum Home Entertainment is a company specializing in quality shot-on-film direct-to-video movies. While they may not have the budget of the latest direct-to-video Sony produced Steven Seagal epic, they can usually pull some terrific entertainment from a very small budget.

Sadly for all of the pros of their latest offering "Freakshow," it is hard to recommend it as casual entertainment for two reasons; 1) it becomes a hardgore exploitation offering, and I mean HARDgore and 2) it is extremely boring for most of the running time.

While I get to the gore in a second, "Freakshow" first and foremost deals with a 'family' of carnival folk who live and work together who are unknowingly involved in a plot to be robbed. Slowly the thieves try to work their way into the family, and while things are going smoothly at first, the criminals get sloppy. While it seems straightforward enough the story being told here is often times murky and hard to follow. As I said before the film moves at a snail's pace and doesn't pick up until the last ten minutes, which results in some of the most harsh and shocking scenes I have seen in quite a while.

The make up effects by Tom Devlin are fantastic and gruesome. While his work is limited to mostly gore on the film, we do get to see one prosthetic 'freak' design as most of the carnies in the film are actual 'freaks.'

If you are a fan of exploitation, the rent is worthwhile on this film. It looks fantastic and carries a very sleazy tone throughout, but the slow pacing will kill it for most. If anything, the last ten minutes are a gore fan's wet dream.