SHE FREAK (1967) Blu-ray
Director: Byron Mabe
Something Weird Video/American Genre Film Archive

Herschell Gordon Lewis partner David Friedman and Byron Mabe reimagine Tod Browning's FREAKS for the grindhouse with SHE FREAK, on Blu-ray from Something Weird Video and American Genre Film Archive.

Tired of being hit on by customers and her "Greasy" boss (Claude Earl Jones, BRIDE OF REANIMATOR), waitress Jade Cochran (Claire Brennan, THE TOUCHABLES) quits and joins a visiting carnival despite the warnings of ad man Ben Thomas (Ben Moore, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS) that it is the worse job option. Although she ends up working once gain bussing tables, she makes friends with showgirl Moon (Lynn Courtney) who points her in the lucrative direction of widowed Freak Show tent owner Steve St. John (Bill McKinney, DELIVERANCE), but not before she has had a dalliance with hunky but violent ride operator Blackie Fleming (Lee Raymond, director of THE ADULT VERSION OF JEKYLL & HYDE). It's a whirlwind romance for Jade and Steve in spite of her absolute disgust with his freaks who he thinks of as a family of outcasts. When the honeymoon is over and Steve goes back to work and playing poker with the boys, Jade falls back into Blackie's arms, a fact that does not go unnoticed by Steve's loyal dwarf friend Shorty (THE ADDAMS FAMILY's Felix Silla). When tragedy results from the exposure of the affair, the freaks cook up a special kind of vengeance against the perpetrators.

While an exploitation film reimagining of Tod Browning's FREAKS – once unavailable officially from producer MGM and for a long time only seen under various titles in traveling shows carrying bootleg prints – would seem a piece of cake, especially with producer David Friedman (BLOOD FEAST) at the helm, SHE FREAK was helmed by Byron Mabe (THE BUSHWHACKER) and is just as dull as most of his output. We start with ten minutes of carnival footage before a brief visit to the freak show leads to a flashback, then a ten minute setup scene at the diner between Jade and Greasy, then another five minutes of carnival setup footage as Jade wanders around. The plot seems to get underway at that point with some nice interaction between Brennan and Courtney (who really seems like she should have done more work in film), but then it is down to more dialogue-free montage as Steve courts Jade and then marries her. The plot does not actually take off until the last twenty minutes, and you can almost hear the film running out when we get to the freaks' vengeance scene (the only scene with any kind of visual style) and the ending reveal.

As bad as the film is, it actually is a good showcase for Brennan in that she gets most of the dialogue scenes and flashbacks – a scenery-chewing Jones is a close second – while most of the other character actors play out most of their scenes without dialogue and/or in long and wide shots (Silla barely has any screen time despite his function in the plot). Brennan is certainly the definition of a trooper, even playing the final scene with a straight face. The then thirty-three year old actress went on to a relatively prolific career in episodic television – including five guest shots each in BARNABY JONES and THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO – and had reportedly landed a regular role in a prime time series before her 1977 death from cancer. Only after her death was it revealed that she had a nine year relationship with Silla after meeting him on SHE FREAK which resulted in a son.

One of Friedman's most widely-released films with both theatrical and television sales thanks to Friedman's unfortunate decision to scale back the exploitation elements, SHE FREAK was released to VHS with a florid cover by Magnum Entertainment and then to VHS by Something Weird Video in 1992 followed by a special edition DVD from Image Entertainment in 2000. Like the DVD, American Genre Film Archive's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from the 35mm original camera negative, and the latter's 4K restoration is a beauty in exploiting the film's threadbare charms, looking near spotless with vivid colors and textures during the studio-lensed bits while the second unit and location footage is proficiently lensed on the go. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono audio is clean, revealing a combination of live and post-synched dialogue, few sound effects, and a library music track. Optional English SDH subtitles have a few transcription howlers including calling "The Ladies' Aide Society" the "AIDS society" and referring to a "herpetologist" as a "hypnotologist."

Extras start off with the DVD audio commentary by producer Friedman, moderated by SWV's Mike Vraney in which Friedman recalls the effect of seeing FREAKS – as a child and then later in Dwain Esper's traveling show where the showman had to follow it up with a square-up nudist colony flick reel to placate angry hicks – and reveals that they had to shoot scenes at a couple traveling circuses along with a visit to the California State Fair for the opening shots. He also recalls the late Brennan and Silla, as well as the need to create freaks for the film since California had banned displaying people with deformities for profit.

Years later, Friedman discovered that his business partner Donn Davison (HONEY BRITCHES) had taken a print of the film and retitled it ASYLUM OF THE INSANE for southern playdates with an added 3D introductory reel. This reel was not included on the DVD of SHE FREAK but did appear on SWV's homemade compilation DVD MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY SPOOK SHOW SPECTACULAR. They appear on the Blu-ray in a new 2K scan (8:34), consisting of narration about the potentials of dreams to turn into nightmares, illustrated with some benign anaglyph 3D home movie footage of a child in a swing and a man with a paddle ball before cutting to a woman being menaced by a masked man stabbing the camera with an ice pick.

The disc also includes THE LAUGHING, LEERING, LAMPOONING LURES OF DAVID F. FRIEDMAN (97:20), a compilation of Friedman trailers from the SWV vaults preserved in 2K (mostly, since THE ACID EATERS opening footage had to be spliced in from video) including as many films in Friedman's filmography as they had trailers for including the popular ones like THE DEFILERS, THE NOTORIOUS DAUGHTER OF FANNY HILL, A SMELL OF HONEY A SWALLOW OF BRINE, SHE FREAK, THE LUSTFUL TURK, THE HEAD MISTRESS, LOVE CAMP 7, TRADER HORNEE, THE LONG SWIFT SWORD OF SIEGFRIED, THE ADULT VERSION OF JEKYLL & HIDE, and THE EROTIC ADVENTURES OF ZORRO, along with rarer stuff like A SWEET SICKNESS, THE PICK-UP, THAR SHE BLOWS!, THE RAMRODDER, STARLET!, and THE SUCKERS (on DVD from Vinegar Syndrome). There is also a vintage carnival shorts newsreel (8:29) and a promotional photo gallery (4:14). The cover is reversible and the disc is housed with a booklet featuring an essay by Something Weird's Lisa Petrucci. The first 2,500 units ordered directly from Vinegar Syndrome come with a special limited edition embossed slipcover. (Eric Cotenas)

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