Freaks

We first presented a trailer and some still images from the horror movie ‘Freaks’ last August, before it debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, but the picture is finally headed to theaters, roughly a year later, on August 23rd.  Described as a “genre-bending psychological sci-fi thriller,” ‘Freaks’ stars Emile Hirsch as a father who keeps his daughter, Chloe (Lexy Kolker), strictly under lock and key, not even letting her look out the window at the world outside.  Somehow, a creepy-looking ice cream truck and its driver, Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern), factor into the story, and the daughter breaks free (possibly after something bad happens to her dad) to explore the “bizarre, threatening, and mysterious new world beyond her front door after she escapes her father’s protective and paranoid control.”  But is he paranoid?

In anticipation of the theatrical release of ‘Freaks’, a new trailer has been released.  There are certain shades of ‘Bird Box’ evident, as Hirsch is shown papering and taping up the windows and punishing Chloe by locking her in a dark room.  (I just meant that it’s reminiscent of ‘Bird Box’ to a viewer, as ‘Freaks’ was completed before ‘Bird Box’ was released on Netflix.)  It also isn’t clear who the ‘Freaks’ are.  Are they the people (or whatever) outside?  Or are Chloe and her father the ‘Freaks’?  Or is it even more complicated than that?

At any rate, check out the new trailer below, courtesy of iO9:

 

There is also a new poster, which actually sheds a little more light on the matter:

Freaks poster

In case you were wondering, that is a real phone number.  When you call it, you get a prerecorded message.  A woman’s voice doesn’t use the word “Freaks,” but rather the more diplomatic “abnormal.”  She also cautions “They look just like us” and advises the caller to report “abnormal activity” even if they aren’t sure, as it is better to “be safe and wrong than ignore it and be right.”

Once again, who are THEY?  Perhaps more information will be released as the film gets closer to hitting theaters.  But then again, maybe it’s better to not know and be surprised.  Ugh, now I’m talking like the lady in the recording.

In this inventive and powerful science-fiction thriller, a disturbed father (Emile Hirsch) locks his 7-year-old daughter (Lexy Kolker) in a house, warning her of grave dangers outside. But the mysterious Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern) convinces the girl to escape and join him on a quest for family, freedom, and revenge.

‘Freaks’ co-directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Disney’s ‘Kim Possible’ TV movie, ‘Mech-XD’), also stars Amanda Crew and Grace Park.  It opens on August 23rd.