Woke up this Valentine Day's way ahead of the rest of the human occupants in the house - not an unusual weekend occurrence, actually - so I did what I often do on a Saturday a.m.: sat with a cuppa joe, plus some bagels & cream cheese, and I watched a cheesy DVD. This week's selection came courtesy of exploitation archivists Something Weird: 1967's She Freak, a low-rent rewrite of Tod Browning's horror classic Freaks that was scripted and produced by David F Friedman, a prolific exploitation producer who also helped to unleash Herschell Gordon Lewis' goreflix, Blood Feast and 2,000 Maniacs on an unsuspecting drive-in audience.
Freak tells the story of Jade Cochran (Claire Brennan), a trampy Texas waitress with a fondness for posing in front of lighting that'll highlight the curves within her dress and a penchant for speaking into the camera and revealing her rather frightening incisors. As with Freaks, Jade's story is presented as a barker's spiel, something that may or may not be true. The movie opens with an extended montage of a carny setting (West Coast Carnival Shows let Friedman and director Byron Mabe film all over, so at least a third of the flick is devoted to dialog-free sequences taking advantage of the setting) then takes us into a Ten-in-One show where we glimpse a snake charmer plus a sword swallower, then a barker introducing a flashback build-up to the titular "she freak," who we won't see until the film's spine-chilling climax. (Kinda pointless, since her image was on the original movie poster and is plastered on the front of the DVD box, but that's par for this kinda low-budget job.)
When a carny advanced man arrives at the nowheresville cafe where Jade is waitressing, our anti-heroine is intriqued. She wants "something better," so naturally she takes a job as a waitress for the carnival's Midway Diner. (After the Mel Sharples type who runs the small Texas diner learns of her intentions, he freaks and calls her a "carnival tramp.") Once she's established in her new job, Jade befriends the carnival's "burly-cue" dancer (Lynn Courtney), then sets her sights on the most promising male in the vicinity, sideshow owner Steve St. John (Bill McKinley), all the while carrying on a tempestuous affair with a violent roustabout named Blackie Fleming (Lee Raymond).
Article comments
1 - Chris Kent
After reading your blog was reminded of a great drive-in double feature I saw as a kid - "The Boy Who Cried Werewolf" and "SSSSSS."
"Boy Who Cried Werewolf" has as one of its final scenes, the werewolf attacking a van filled with hippies (van had flowers painted on the side).....Final scene in "SSSSSS" shows film's star as a human snake at a carnival sideshow. He ended up that way because a rather demented Strother Martin kept injecting him with serum. Always had a hard time describing this film to elementary school chums - I would hiss, trying to say the name "SSSSS." They would ask "What?" I would hiss the name again. They would ask again "What?!!"
2 - Bill Sherman
I remember seeing SSSSS in an actual movie theater: Strother Martin was mainly known to the audience for his scene-chewing supporting role in Cool Hand Luke - but one viewing of this cheapie horror flick was enough to wipe out any memory of the fact that he'd ever once appeared in a decent movie.
The boyfriend who got transformed into a snake was played by Dirk Benedict, who went onto bigger (if not necessarily better) things with Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team. . .
3 - TDavid
SSSS was definitely a disturbing flick but I'd put it on the level with Kingdom of the Spiders starring Captain Kirk, er William Shatner.
4 - Joe
I'm appalled that neither of you mentioned, Heather Menzies, who played Martin's daughter, she was so dang babilicious, and she was also one of the Von Trapp girls from the Sound of Music.
5 - Chris Kent
No, no, no - now the best spider flick was "The Giant Spider Invasion" starring Alan Hale, Jr. - that's right, The Skipper!
Best William Shatner horror flick has got to be "The Devil's Rain," one of the most mind-numbingly awful films in the history of cinema....
6 - Bill Sherman
Ah, The Devil's Rain - one of John Travolta's first movies, too!
And you're right, Joe, we shouldn't forget Heather's winning performance in SSSSS. . .
7 - Chris Kent
I rented the original "Freaks" a few years ago, having read so much about it, including director Todd Browning's fascination with freaks, since he worked on a carnival in the 1920s I believe?
The movie really freaked me out (pun intended). Yes, it's dated, but still very creepy.
8 - Bill Sherman
Browning had worked for traveling carnivals before becoming a movie director: the circus milieu also shows up in some silent films he directed starring Lon Chaney (The Unknown and The Unholy Three). But Freaks is the film that totally pulls you into the world of sideshow - and keeps you there. It's a remarkable and disturbing achievement that pretty much destroyed the director's career. . .
9 - Chris Kent
That's fascinating....I didn't know that. Browning was definitely a great director in his day (Dracula, Mark of the Vampire, I think....). Hell, all of those old-time horror directors were as interesting as the films they made...