Running away from her dead-end job, a woman's new job as a waitress for a traveling carnival allows her to meet her husband, though the remaining members of the show aren't impressed with the events and try to bring out her real personality.Actually, this turned out to be quite the disaster of a film that serves as a real remake of the earlier classic that has the same overall plot. That really makes this quite distracting when it's so unoriginal that there's no point in hiding where it got it's influences from and showcases them so readily without the slightest remorse or even attempts to change it at all. By focusing on being so close to the source material, it doesn't develop anything of interest or surprise throughout this as nearly everything that plays out, her mistreatment that causes her to join the troupe to begin with, the budding romance and even how she continually cheats on him during the course of their romance and eventual marriage as well as the rather tired way this is discovered, as all of this is just given such a lame feel overall that there's hardly any suspense driven from this overt story and never gives off anything close to suspense. That the majority of the other screen-time is generating on overlong and exceptionally tedious sequences involving the crew for the circus putting up the festivities themselves, taking down and setting up shops, supports and rides throughout the film that these become the most featured type of scene in the whole movie such is their over-use throughout. All of this makes what should be the film's biggest shock scene, the revenge by the deformed performers for their mistreatment and cruelty, seem like an afterthought in here with the ho-hum manner in which it's dealt out with hardly any effort to build up to this sequence, to deliver it in any way that showcases any suspense at what they're going to do or even any sense of righteousness from it because it's all based on such lame motives it's not worth caring about. About the only thing saving this one is the one female support constantly stripping for her show or shown in states of undress, but not even that can save this one.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence and Brief Nudity.

Bored diner waitress Jade (Claire Brennen) joins the carnival in search of excitement, where she quickly worms her way into the affections of wealthy freak show manager Steve St. John (Bill McKinney), the carnival's most eligible bachelor. After a whirlwind romance, and a short engagement, the pair get married, but it's not long before Jade is out seeking thrills with loutish ferris wheel foreman Blackie (Lee Raymond), who happily gives her a ride for free. When Steve learns from pal Shorty that his wife is banging Blackie, he confronts the uncouth carnie, only to get a knife in the belly for his troubles. As a result, delighted Jade inherits her late husband's lucrative business, but her hatred and mistreatment of the sideshow's exhibits means it not long before the ruthless ex-waitress gets served her just desserts.She Freak, a virtual remake of Tod Browning's 30s horror classic Freaks, opens with a solid five and a half minutes of carnival footage—shot after tedious shot of carnies plying their trade to happy punters—before eventually getting down to telling a story. Throughout the film, director Byron Mabe continues to make maximum usage of his carnival setting, regularly interrupting the action with further prolonged shots of people risking their lives on rather precarious looking fairground rides while eating unwholesome food purchased from dodgy concession stands. Strip this excess of colourful padding from this cheapo drive-in garbage and there really isn't a whole lot left—certainly nothing to get your average exploitation/horror fan excited about.Considering the film was produced by trashmeister David F. Friedman, whose filmography boasts such legendary titles as Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs!, Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, and Love Camp 7, it should come as no surprise to find that, in terms of style and atmosphere, She Freak is no match for the masterpiece that inspired it; however, it is rather shocking to discover that the film is remarkably light on both sleaze and gore. The bloodletting is limited to an unconvincing screwdriver through the hand during a fight between carnies and there is no sex or nudity to speak of (unless you count off-screen nookie and a few brief glimpses of skin from sexy sideshow stripper Moon, played by Lynn Courtney). Worse still, the film's genuine 'freaks' are limited to one dwarf (Felix Silla, Twiki from Buck Rogers), a sword swallower, and a June Whitfield lookalike who plays with snakes—no match for the collection of genuinely disturbing human oddities that helped make Tod Browning's Freaks such a memorable movie.

It makes carnivals really, really, really dull. Really. The most interesting thing for me, a boomer kid, was reminiscing about the fashions and decor of the era, and noticing how freak-show signs never seem to change.We didn't need the extolling at the outset of the film to realize that the producer probably was getting a big chunk o' change from the West Coast Shows carnival to make this film. I mean, for pity's sake, as has already been mentioned here, the scenes of the carnival in which NOTHING HAPPENS are mind-bogglingly frequent and long. But it certainly did the carnival no favors to have five minutes here and seven minutes there and another five minutes here of these scenes, because they're things like the same shots of the same rides, or the same shots of the same signs, or people standing next to trucks and smoking, or people putting ride parts on trucks or taking them off, or even, heaven help me, Jade, the main character, clearing debris off picnic tables. If this had been my experience of the carnival when I was a kid, I'd have been in tears asking my parents to take me home NOW.And for the grownup seeking some titillation in Moon's "topless" dancing, well, caveat emptor. There's a question mark on her sign for a reason.If anyone wants to know what it was like working in the actual West Coast Shows, there is a site by the (late) Amazing Vanteen, who played Mr. Babcock and also one of the killers, which details his life with that show. He briefly discusses the making of this film as well.The attempted rip-off of Browning's "Freaks" is shameless and futile. For all of Jade's trembling hatred for the freaks, we don't see many of them. We have the odd-talent people, who only marginally qualify for this sad label. The closest to the classic definition of a sideshow freak is Shortie (and the oddest thing to me about Shortie is that he didn't grab that bottle of booze while Blackie and Pretty-Boy were duking it out by the trailer under which Shortie was hiding). The finale, of course, is total theft, although the details of the transfiguration constitute a more plausible end to Jade than the Browning ending provides. Whatever revolted viewer satisfaction there might be in the revenge is, however, I think undone by Greasy's reveling in Jade's undoing. We have no reason to think he is not as despicable as she is, after all.Anyway, save yourself a wasted afternoon. This is no cult classic, kids.

A waitress who has dreams of a better life decides she'd have more fun working for a traveling carnival. Weird choice for a better life, but whatever. Once there, it isn't long before she's courting the rich owner of the carnival freak show. After marrying him, she carries on an affair with the ferris wheel operator behind his back. Everything ends badly for all involved.This is a pretty poor attempt at a remake of Freaks. Instead of actual character development, the film feels content to give us countless scenes via musical montage. The entire courtship between the lead and the freak show guy is a wordless series of scenes set to music. We also have several lengthy scenes of the carnival being set up and then even more of it being taken down. This is sort of neat to see, but it takes up way too much time. The pointless scenes don't stop there, as we also get a cheesy fight midway through. One guy gets a screwdriver through the hand, which would seem pretty serious, but there are no repercussions.Leading lady, Claire Brennen (who unfortunately passed away ten years after this film), was actually quite good in the movie. The ending is decent too as the freaks have their revenge and we see what's become of her. I was really surprised to read that Claire had a romantic relationship with the actor who played the sideshow midget that her character is so disgusted by in the film. Good for them.The film itself is absolutely nothing to write home about. For a better freak-oriented movie, check out Jack Cardiff's The Freakmaker.