Freaks of Nature (2015)

The first 7 minutes or so when I watched it, it felt like a poor spoof film (of Twilight and a bunch of other flicks) so I really wasn't getting into it at all as I really am not a fan of spoof flicks (at least the ones they do these days).

But I decided to give it another go and although a lot of jokes (of which in some scenes every line of dialogue is one) fall flat (the ratio of funny jokes for me would probably be about 1 out of 10) once the action kicks off it still gets rather amusing.

It helps that it moves at a fast pace so you can't focus too much on the flaws.

Teenagers cracking jokes and battling various monsters seem to been a very popular subject in film in 2015 and if you loved DEATHGASM (2015), THE FINAL GIRLS (2015) and SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE APOCALYPSE (2015) I'm sure you will at the very least like this one as they are pretty similar.

Fmovies: "I think I'm having brain withdrawals."

Completely hilarious. That's my feeling about "Freaks of nature". First I was afraid this would be another high school teen-movie. Eventually this turned out to be a rather absurd, horror-comedy. A kind of "Porkies in Zombieland" with vampires, zombies and a crazy army of aliens passing through. Of course the known types of youngsters were used again. As expected. First you have the cool student Dag (Nicholas Braun) who abandoned his friend Ned (Josh Fadem) because this one still acted nerdy. Of course he's madly in love with the girl next door Lorelei (Vanessa Hudgens), who looks tremendously tasty, but ultimately it's an impossible love because she's hooked up with a local jock. And last but not least, there's also the pathetic girl Petra (Mackenzie Davis) who was bullied by everyone. The moment this concept became clear, I sighed again in an irritated way. But after seeing a group of zombies getting of a school-bus and moving towards the school entrance in their well-known manner plus a macho vampire who tries to seduce Petra in the next scene, it became clear that this could well be an entertaining film.

It certainly was entertaining. I myself am quite a fussy when it comes to comedy and humor. Rarely it happens that I start laughing spontaneously. Usually it's just a muffled chuckle or a modest smile. But this time there were a few occasions I had to laugh out loud. Especially the zombie community was hilarious. After the alien invasion, each population began to accuse the others and suspected them of participating in a conspiracy. As a result they all held their own public meeting where they encouraged each other to take action. Needless to say, the meeting of the zombie community was the most calm and subdued one. Funny as hell. The principle of differences between the classes was incorporated shrewdly. The interference of a third party which turned all these groups against each other, looks familiar. Only the resulting confrontation is pretty bloody and ends up in a huge splatter fest (Only it's sometimes difficult to distinguish who's attacking who) with quite a few severed limbs.

Maybe I'm a bit too enthusiastic about this horror-comedy, because lets be honest, it's a pretty simple story without too many surprises or intricate story lines. It's a mishmash of genres they've mixed together. They've kept it lightly and certainly farcical. It sometimes looked like a slapstick horror. And speaking about horror. You should take that with a grain of salt, because this movie won't give you the creeps. Lets shed a light on the makeup and special effects. The only part that didn't look so great, was the one with the space invaders. That one really looked old-fashioned. The vampires seemed to be borrowed from the "Twilight" saga. It was the zombie mob that looked sublime. Here the makeup artists really used their complete imagination.

"Freaks of nature" is a true B-movie. Normally the acting is also of a questionable level in that case. Surprisingly this wasn't so bad at all here. I suppose the actors had fun doing this flick, since this was very clear to see sometimes. The most hilarious rendition is that of Josh Fadem. The intelligent nerd who came up with this superb idea so he'd be free of all worries. His facial expressions and way of doing sometimes was enormously funny. And you'll clearly recognize parodies of well-known films. A

"Freaks of Nature" had it all, literally, it had it all. Zombies, vampires, werewolves and aliens. The only thing that was missing was robots. Now, one might think with a mix of that many iconic movie creatures thrown together, that it might be a bit too much. But it wasn't! And "Freaks of Nature" turned out to be a very entertaining movie.

The movie starts out in a fast pace, and the audience is introduced to a world where vampires and zombies live among the living humans. Then on one fateful night, aliens show up and that upsets the balance of the world, causing the vampires, zombies and humans to turn against one another in a chaotic surge of violence.

The characters in the movie were nicely detailed, lots of characteristics and personalities. Plus the people hired to portray the various characters were doing great jobs with their given roles. It was a nice touch to see Denis Leary, Keegan-Michael Key and Bob Odenkirk in the movie as well. The three lead talents, Nicholas Braun (playing Dag), Mackenzie Davis (playing Petra) and Josh Fadem (playing Ned) really carried the movie quite well.

The story is good, filled with action and humor, and the effects are great as well. And having good special effects in a creature feature is a make or break deal, and I am glad to say that the special effects team really pulled their weight here and came through where it counted.

The whole mixture of aliens, humans, vampires and zombies in one movie was really good. It was surreal, for sure, but it was highly entertaining.

There has been a good addition of zombie comedies to the zombie genre in the recent years, and "Freaks of Nature" does rank high on the list, right alongside with "Shaun of the Dead", "Zombies of Mass Destruction" and "Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse".

Freaks of Nature fmovies. Comedy version of zombie apocalypse has been done a few times in last year alone, but "Freaks of Nature" has a brilliant idea, throws in vampires and aliens too for good measure. It results in a mishmash of erratic dysfunctional team, in some cases there's literally no sense of what's going on as it occurs too randomly. While the loud noise can be, and quite will be numbing, it does sneak in a few over-the-top comedic moments.

In a town where all monstrosities, and humanity, work in less than harmony, an alien invasion will change all that. This is the same type of nerds or outcasts save the day premise since Elijah Wood rescued the hot girl and defeated the foreign threat in The Faculty, only done in much more bloody chaotic fashion.

Dag (Nicholas Braun) is channeling his child Shia LaBeouf as he stutters, gestures and blurs out his lines in unexpected hero gig, though at this point it's too obvious of a hero set-up it becomes cliché. Petra (Mackenzie Davis) is looking highly uncomfortable with her fake fang and unapproachable issues. These two barely have any chemistry yet the screenplay just clashes them together for romantic subplot.

Lorelei (Vanessa Hudgens) looks like the mandatory wallflower and constantly gives uncomfortable erotic gaze to pretty much everything. Ned (Josh Fadem) is the zombiefied nerd, who actually has more relatable problems although the lumbering shtick feels restraining. Keegan-Michael Key from the Youtube or Comedy Central fame delivers his desperate teacher persona, which is expectedly and exaggeratedly entertaining.

The whole thing reeks of chaos, even though it tries to associate real life social metaphor of acceptance for the undertone of monster theme. It has a few witty moments in expense of the main characters and these are appreciated albeit blatant in delivery. Its abrupt change can be distracting since it tries to pile so many fleshy gore together, then suddenly includes display of nudity.

"Freak of Nature" is the example of outlandishly bloody parody, it's as juvenile as they come but might work momentarily for a mindless fun escapade.

Freak of Nature was an awesome movie. They put zombies, vampires, and aliens all in the same movie, and made it work. We laughed a lot, there were a lot great moments. A guy gets clotheslined by a clothesline! A zombie lost his arm and then used it to high five. They put all the elements together and they worked. Don't expect any realism or serious plot, this movie is pure entertainment.

Supporting cast were excellent, the big draw for us was Joan Cusack, she never fails to disappoint. Dennis Leary was great as the owner of Ribblet Factory, the towns claim to fame, and the reason for the alien attack.

If you loved Zombies of Mass Destruction, or The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse you will love this movie too.

Mixing zombies, vampires, and aliens sounded cool enough. With Patton Oswalt, Bob Odenkirk, Denis Leary, Keegan-Michael Key, and Werner Herzog, one would think this could be a really funny movie. Instead, those really funny people all play relatively small roles and we are mostly left with a trio of unfunny heroes plodding around the film.

The town has zombies and vampires mixing in society, mostly at a high school, and none of that ever gets a back story. Attempts at wild comedy don't need to explain too much, especially if it would interfere with the jokes. But this wild comedy never gets wild enough, and it is nowhere near as clever as it portrays itself. Is it really all that funny to kill people around you and then act like it was NBD?

There are funny moments, but not enough LOLz. There also seems to be some attempt at a morality play about classism or racism, as we see humans vs. zombies vs. vampires. Vampire-on-zombie crime is most assuredly despicable, and we should all get along.

This vague social commentary gets mixed with the eternal story font: High School is Tough For Everyone, Even the Popular People. If you don't want to feel, you don't have to: just go be a zombie. If you want to be cool, be a vampire. Whatever you do, just make sure everyone sees, so you can make the scene.

It's a bad sign when Ed Westwick has the best performance in a movie. Nicholaus Braun rattles off his lines like he can't wait to get to the bar. Mackenzie Davis, however, puts in a sincere performance and is a star-to-be.

Freaks of Nature is neither clever enough, funny enough, gross enough, nor serious enough to be much of anything in particular. Even the smooth and dulcet tones of Werner Herzog's voice do little to step up the scene. This is no Cabin in the Woods.