She Freak
It’s a rough place of momentary distraction rather than somewhere for dreams to come true, but for waitress Jade Cochran the travelling carnival is a chance of escape from her employment as a small-town diner waitress; one of nine children who never went to high school of a mother who was once “the prettiest girl in Texas” but is now a tired old woman at forty-two after a quarter-century of marriage, how much worse can it be?
The job essentially the same, working the diner wagon, serving and cleaning away, she makes friends with burlesque dancer Pat “Moon” Mullins who points her in the direction of owner Steve St John, the only man in the carnival with any prospects of a better life, but despite the swift courtship and marriage she cannot stay away from big wheel foreman Blackie Fleming nor get over her disgust at the carnival freaks.
A low budget and low ambition exploitation horror film released in 1967, She Freak promises far more than it delivers, the barker and the banners announcing the Two-Headed Baby, the Atomic Girl, the Fire King, the Monkey Girl, and of course freaks and strippers, but what it presents is a sub-par soap opera of a woman whose urge to improve her lowly position exceeds her sense who predictably brings her worst nightmare upon herself.
Madame Olga (Marsha Drake) reading a change of life in her palm, Jade (Claire Brennan) marries well but in haste and makes her bed in a small and gossipy sideshow, the only surprise how long it takes for the “carnival tramp” to prompt a confrontation between husband Steve (Lee Raymond) and lover Blackie (Lee Raymond), while Moon (Lynn Courtney) dances a routine so disappointing the rubes should be asking for their dollars back.
Directed by Bryon Mabe from a script by David F Friedman, She Freak relies heavily on tedious footage of the rousties putting up or tearing down equipment, all sledgehammers and wrenches, the film ostensibly inspired by Tod Browning’s iconic Freaks but having none of the imagination or atmosphere, making even The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies seem dynamic and inventive.
The dialogue far from challenging yet many of the cast struggling to express their lines naturally, perhaps the reason surf rock and wild jazz often play over silently mouthed conversations, despite being built around Jade’s aversion to the freaks the finale relies on a slew of characters who are unseen until their revenge other than Shorty (Felix Silla), her fear and resentment empty and their eventual appearance as tame as Moon’s decidedly unprovocative dancing.
She Freak is streaming on the Arrow platform now
