2019 Freaks

• Directed by Zach Lipovsky
• Written by Zach Lipovsky
• Stars Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Grace Part
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqaVJbXHD-I

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This leans heavily into science fiction, action, thriller aspects while whispering in some horror. It starts out nicely with a bit of mystery and gets more fascinating the more we find out what’s going on in this alternate reality. It was very entertaining with a big thumbs up from both of us.

Spoilery Synopsis

A little girl, Chloe, peeks out the window at the ice cream truck on the street. Her father shoos her away from the window and covers it back up,  saying she’s not being a good hider, and the bad guys will find her if she’s not careful. She recites all the details about her made-up identity with her dad. She knows exactly what to do if her father ever doesn’t come home. “I can’t wait until I’m normal,” she whines. They seem happy, but they’re also clearly hiding. Is he some kind of loon?

Then Dad’s eyes start to bleed, which surprises no one. She wonders if her eyes will do that someday. He shouts at her, “You are not normal!” and she laughs. Chloe knows things about “the mountain,” but she’s not supposed to know about that. 

Chlose dreams about a monster trying to break in the door, and we see that she’s been drawing scary pictures. Turns out, she sees ghosts. Dad says, “Ghosts aren’t real.” 

The next morning, Chloe hears the ice cream man outside again, and someone drops a book through the mail slot, “Mr. Snowcone and the Princess.” Chloe wants ice cream. She sees another little girl at the ice cream truck and wishes out loud repeating for Harper to bring her some. She does, so Chloe opens the door. Harper’s mother, Nancy, also stops by and introduces herself. “She looks so normal,” Nancy says. Dad wonders how Harper knows Chloe’s real name. 

Harper wakes up and finds Chloe in her room. This version of Harper is Chloe’s sister, at least Chloe thinks so. And wants Harper to pretend she’s Chloe’s mother. Dad comes in, and Chloe’s alone in the locked room. He offers to just buy her some ice cream since he has to go out for supplies anyway. 

A short time later, Dad rushes in, covered in blood and holding a gun. “That’s OK, this mostly isn’t my blood,” he says. “I just gotta be more careful.” Not only has he been shot, he’s forgotten the ice cream. He says they may have to stay hidden for a very long time. 

Once Dad passes out, Chloe grabs a gun and hundred-dollar bill and goes outside to get some ice cream. She looks around like she’s never been outside before. “Are we safe from the people who want to kill us?” She asks the ice cream man, who happens to know her name. He lures her into the back of his truck and drives her to “the park.”  On the way, they pass a billboard showing someone who bleeds from the eyes and a warning to call 911. 

They do, in fact, actually go to the park. The old man asks if Chloe can do anything special. He tries to scare her, and then he tries to make her mad, to get a response. “Is there anything you can do that other people can’t do?” A police officer shows up, and the old man claims to be her grandfather. Chloe gets upset at the cop, and she makes him go away with the power of her mind. 

On the way home, the old man explains that Chloe’s mother was his daughter– he really is her grandfather, and he really does take her back home. He hands her a drug to make her father go to sleep the next time he returns. 

When he wakes up, Chloe’s father finds that his daughter has a new attitude; she calls him a liar. He says her mother was killed because she couldn’t follow the rules. A little later, Chloe finds her mother in the little room where she was with Harper earlier. 

We watch Chloe’s father dozing in front of a news report, “Remembering Dallas Ten Years After the Attack,” and they show the city in ruins. The “Abnormals” or “Freaks” are the subject of discussion. Any Freaks who are running loose are illegal. Most of the Freaks have been relocated to a mountain somewhere. “Living weapons of mass destruction,” calls the newscaster. But the agent being interviewed suggests how wonderful it could be to find an Abnormal child they could raise to be good and on their side. 

Chloe somehow ends up in Harper’s room while still at her own house during a sleepover, and all the other girls start calling her a Freak. She also finds her mother chained to the floor. 

When Chloe tells her father about what she’s seen, he doesn’t believe any of it. She tries to drug him as instructed, but he figures out what she’s doing. She forces him to go to sleep–without the powder, and her eye bleeds. 

Chloe wants to go across the street and pay Nancy to become her new mom, but Grandpa shows up and offers to take Chloe to her real mom. Grandpa explains what happened to Chloe’s mother– her father wouldn’t use his powers to protect the family, since he wanted to hide. 

Grandpa takes Chloe to see Agent Ray, the woman from the TV. He pretends to be a priest who’s been taking care of an “Abnormal.” Ray has an easy, painless way to detect mutants by using an ultraviolet flashlight to see if there are traces of blood tears, and the old man looks clear. He wants Ray to take them both to Maddick Mountain. That plan goes south, and the old man makes them both disappear– he can turn invisible! He stabs a cook in the eye, and the overzealous cops shoot that guy as they invisibly escape. He believes that his daughter is still alive and being held at the Evil Mountain. 

Chloe’s dad, Henry, appears out of nowhere, and teleports the old man away. He says he’s been looking for her for a week. Then we see that Henry doesn’t teleport, he can slow down and even stop time outside a bubble he projects. The world only advances while he sleeps; it’s only been a few months since Chloe’s mom died, but it’s been years inside the house from their point of view inside the bubble he projects. 

Henry takes Chloe and a big pile of money across the street to Nancy and Steven’s house. They expected this; Henry wants to leave Chloe with them with the promise of regular payments. Harper is there as well, and she doesn’t like Chloe, who has been appearing in her room; she’s gonna be a problem. This is a weird situation, and Nancy and Steven argue. Chloe makes the problem go away– for a few minutes before they’re thrown out. 

Henry and Chloe go back home, where Grandpa Alan is tied to a chair. As the two men argue, Chloe talks to her mother in the attic. When Henry tries to nail the door shut, Chloe makes him nearly kill himself before passing out herself. 

Alan tells Henry that Mary isn’t really dead. This leads to an argument. Chloe notices Nancy, across the street, talking to the police about getting a reward. Chloe makes the policeman stab Nancy in the eye, and then the other cops see her eye bleeding and shoot her. 

Chloe gets a vision of her mother strapped to a bed after being tortured. Henry sees it too, this time. He apologizes as they watch two workers get ready to inject something into Mary. Chloe makes them stop, at whatever distance the scientists are away. She then makes the remaining man release Mary, fully possessing him. 

Agent Ray comes to the door, which interrupts everything; Henry freezes the entire outside world. Chloe wants Henry to talk to Ray and convince her that he’s normal. Alan shows Henry how to get past Ray’s ultraviolet light test, so he lets her in. They talk about Freaks in the neighborhood like Nancy and Steve. She knows who he is as well as the whole family story. She’s got drones outside ready to kill them all if he doesn’t cooperate, as well as heavily armed cops outside. Meanwhile, Chloe continues to fully control that other security man, who wheels Mary toward the prison exit. Mary has said she has to get outside to have room to use her power. 

As Ray and Henry talk, Alan, who is invisible, steals Ray’s gun. Ray says Henry will be killed, but Chloe will be saved and used as a weapon. Ray knows he’s there. She shoots Henry and goes upstairs to find Chloe doing her thing with Mary and the man at the prison. Ray shoots Chloe, but Grandpa gets in the way and blocks the bullet; he dies. Chloe then makes Ray shoot herself. 

Henry comes upstairs, and he uses Ray’s radio to tell the men outside that she’s a hostage. Henry freezes time, goes outside, and shoots several of the cops before starting time up again, which gives the rest of them pause.

Inside the mountain, the guards close in on Mary, but Chloe makes them open the doors. Mary then flies away with a shockwave that blasts all the guards outside into pulp, “I know where to find you,” she tells her. Henry slows the Hellfire missile that’s in the process of hitting their roof and he runs out with Chloe. 

A bit later, Chloe wakes up just as Henry dies. Mary shows up, she flew all the way there. The shockwave from her landing kills the remaining soldiers closing in on Chloe. She carries Chloe away, who declares that they aren’t going to hide anymore. 

Brian’s Commentary

This should not be confused with the 1932 film “Freaks” which is a whole different animal. 

We start off with a paranoid, isolating father who appears to be crazy, and it goes quite a long time until we learn otherwise.  We’re forty minutes in before we figure out that this is the X-Men universe. The X-Men are fun, but this film is probably much more like the way it would really work out if mutants were real. 

Bruce Dern was 83 here and it’s a big part for someone of that age. Lexy Walker, as Chloe, is very young and does an outstanding job here as well. Emile Hirsch looks just like a young Jack Black for some reason, but he’s good too. 

It’s a bit minimal on the horror elements, but it was really entertaining. 

Kevin’s Commentary

I thought this was very cool. We got to gradually find out what was going on in this alternate world, and once we did it was a cool story. The effects of Chloe’s distance viewing and projection, the time dilation, and the invisibility were all very well done. I’d give it a solid thumbs up.