Freaks is a new sci-fi thriller which tells the story of Chloe (Lexy Kolker), a young girl with superpowers that is protected by her father (Emile Hirsch) from the outside world.
Locked away inside their boarded-up house, Chloe is trained by her father for when the time comes to blend in to look like a ‘normal’ person to prevent any suspicious questions and danger. With little interaction outside of the house, Chloe expresses a big curiosity and confusion as to why she is not allowed to play with the other kids outside and continues to be shut down by her father.
One day while Chloe plays in her room, she hears the sound of a happy music tune being played outside the house and proceeds to peek through the covered up windows to discover an ice cream truck. With a sweet tooth craving, Chloe sneaks out of the house while her father is asleep and follows the music till she meets an elderly man by the name of Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern) who offers Chloe to come inside the truck and try any ice cream she would like. The two bond over a short time, and even take a little adventure to the park where Chloe gets to witness outside activities for the first time. But once she returns home, Chloe’s father catches on quickly that she has been spending time outside which sends him in a spiral of fear for Chloe’s safety.
As the film felt slightly slow paced, the last half delivers some excitement with action scenes and insight into Chloe’s powers and abilities. This honestly could’ve been a spin-off to the X-Men franchise as it felt so similar with mutants or ‘Freaks’ as labelled in the film, who are on the run from the political majority who don’t agree on special powers. It’s something we’ve all seen before, but with Freaks I found that they didn’t try to introduce too many characters with special abilities, which allowed me to sit back and go along for the discovery journey of Chloe’s powers.
Losing a little interest with the pacing of the film and struggling to connect with the father-daughter relationship on-screen, I still found myself enjoying Freaks. There are some solid performances in this film and also some great special effects that quickly caught my attention. Kolker is only 10 years old, yet delivered a great performance and stole the spotlight. One can only hope that if there is a sequel, she will return.
I would recommend this film to fans of sci-fi that enjoy similar stories to the X-Men series. So be sure to see Freaks in selected cinemas from September 12.