In this 1967 reworking of / unofficial follow-up to Tod Browning’s Freaks, a bored waitress named Jade joins the carnival in an attempt to discover who she is and what she really wants to get out of life. Despite expressing disdain for the carnival’s freakshow, she settles on the idea of marrying its manager and hatches a cold-hearted plan to catch his attention. But things go awry when one of the freaks witnesses one of Jade’s “indiscretions” with a fellow carnival worker, and Jade’s new life takes a turn that she could never have possibly dreamed of…
She Freak tones things down drastically compared to writer and producer David F. Friedman’s more well-known work, featuring none of the horror, tension, bad language, nudity, violence or gore found in his collaborations with Herschell Gordon Lewis or infamous exploitation classics like Two Thousand Maniacs, Love Camp 7, and Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS. This is more of a character-focused drama than anything else, and some might be disappointed by the fact that the ‘freaks’ aren’t seen until the absolute dying seconds of the film when the tale is quickly wrapped up in shocking (for 1967, maybe) fashion. It’s far from a waste of time, though – the original footage has been cleaned up marvellously, the cinematography is good, the acting is solid, the writing is coherent, the film is easy to watch and Claire Brennen’s fantastic turn as Jade really ought to be more well-recognised. You’ll get to see an early appearance from Felix Silla (Cousin Itt from The Addams Family TV show), and being filmed at a genuine Californian county fair means that there’s extensive footage of general carny-related goings-on, which will please those with a penchant for watching hunky fairground workers and random members of the public playing sideshow games.
Later reworked into another film, the extra footage that was inserted into She Freak to create “Asylum of the Insane” is available in the extra features, alongside a few minutes’ worth of vintage carnival footage and a couple of interviews where two sets of conjoined twins discuss marriage (here, you’ll get to see a man making out with one of the twins, which is something most of us probably don’t see every day). Saving the best for last, though, a restored version of the 1992 VHS release “The Laughing, Leering, Lampooning Lures of David F Friedman” is included in its entirety, featuring 100 minutes of highlights and ‘coming attractions’ culled from 18 of Friedman’s sauciest and most salacious films, which is absolutely worthy of adding an extra star to the overall rating.
Another collection of madness from the American Genre Film Archive’s vast collection, She Freak is now available in the UK on Blu-ray from 101 Films
