I’m a fan of monster movies and comedies in general. Thus, when I saw the plot of Freaks of Nature there was no way I was going to miss it. It’s currently available for rent at Redbox so I grabbed a copy to see how it holds up. The movie is interesting and funny at times, but nothing amazing earning Freaks of Nature a Decent Watch rating.
Freaks of Nature and the Home of the Riblet
Dag (Nicholas Braun) lives in the town of Dillford where humans, vampires, and zombies live together in a strained harmony. That is until the aliens show up and manage to stir up tensions even more and the three groups begin fighting. Petra (Mackenzie Davis) a vampire and Ned (Josh Fadem) a zombie team up with Dag and the three attempt to bring back the harmony the town once had and remove the alien threat.
Nicholas Braun is really funny in this film and the idea of the film is pretty innovative. I’d love to see this as just a coming of age story, which is a part of this overly complex plot, as in ways it reminds me of Skyhigh. The connection and back story of Petra and Ned with Dag is easily one of the best parts of the film. Ned is a likable character and easily relatable for me. Stand outs, but often under utilized, include Dennis Leary, Keegan-Michael Key, Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswalt, and Joan Cusack.
My favorite scenes are early in the film seeing how the vampires and zombies are integrated in with the humans. The movie follows most of the traditional rules of vamps and zombies making the interactions all the more comical. When things first go wrong the chase that ensues Nicholas Braun is pretty funny and when he teams up with Petra and Ned things get pretty crazy.
This movie tries to be too many things. A traditional monster movie, an apocalypse movie, a coming of age story, an action film, and a comedy. While it doesn’t do any of them badly it’s identity crisis definitely weakens what the film could have been. If it had focused on maybe two of those elements it would have been a stronger film in my opinion.
The film was enjoyable, but not particularly memorable or outstanding. Freaks of Nature has some interesting aspects and some solid performances. I would have love to see more of Nick’s story after a certain point in the film, but there was already so much going on it ran out of time.
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