Originally titled The Mutations, this 1972 "homage" to Tod Browning's classic 1932 film Freaks finally sees a DVD release (after being out-of-print for over ten years) courtesy of Subversive Cinema. And while, The Freakmaker, does have it's flaws and moves a little slower than it should at times, it's still a pretty watchable reimagining of the 1932 film and manages to add its own twists as to not be a rip-off.

Donald Pleasance plays a University professor who's been experimenting with plant life on the side attempting to create a new form of "mutation" that will blend human and plant life together into an all-new species. In order to get test subjects he's hired the help of local freak show owner Tom Baker (best known for the Dr. Who TV series, a role he would get a few years after this) who supplies him with young women in exchange for a promise that Pleasence will try and cure his deformed face in the near future. Baker also gets some new "freaks" for his show as Pleasence's failed experiments become part of the act.

We all know that when you mess with nature things are apt to go wrong and soon enough they start to as Baker finds himself being alienated by his "freak" performers who have banded together and formed a closely-knit sort of family while at the same time one of Pleasence's failed experiments (a combination of man and a venus flytrap) has broken loose and is attacking people using the mouth opening in its chest.

Sporting it's "homage's" on its chest by using the sideshow element and having the group of freaks utter "one of us" at Baker's character in one scene, The Freakmaker does something a lot of 70's horror movies didn't and that's attempt to build a sympathetic group of characters. At the same time director Jack Cardiff and his screenwriters Robert D. Weinbach and Edward Mann have seen fit to add in a bunch of monster mayhem and skin to keep you interested, so it's because of these reasons that I'm recommending the movie to fans of drive-in cinema.

Like I said, the movie does plod along at times and in the end it gets a little bit too dopey for its own good, but it's still a watchable time with monster effects scenes that work alright (despite looking a little dated and cheap) and one truly effective scene (borrowed from Browning's film) with the freaks crowding around Baker and giving him the comeuppance he truly deserves.

Also of interest for horror fans to see Pleasence in a role other than Dr. Loomis (in the Halloween movies), but he does seem to have given his character a weird on-again-off-again German accent at times. Plus you have to dig a movie that's set design has the typical "mad scientist's lab" with bubbling beakers and test tubes of various colour. (Chris Hartley, 11/9/05)

Directed By: Jack Cardiff.
Written By: Edward Mann, Robert D. Weinbach.

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Tom Baker, Brad Harris, Julie Ege.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Wow. Subversive have done a great job with the transfer here and have managed to find a great print that's only noticeable grain is during scenes with stock footage (the nature scenes that open the movie) and only suffers from a few moments of shimmering. Otherwise the clarity is above average and the colour is rich (almost too much so, but that might be a fault of Technicolor).

Extras: Subversive also supply the viewer with a good batch of extras that even manages to include a reprint of lobby cards and the poster in the case (which is see-through inside with images of the movie on the back of the jacket card).

For extras we get a trailer (plus trailers for other Subversive releases), decent biographies for the main cast and crew, a still gallery of the films lobby cards and artwork, a decent "making of" featurette that runs 26 minutes, an introduction by director Cardiff, and two commentary tracks: one with Cardiff and moderator Norm Hill; the other with moderator Hill, co-star Harris, and co-writer Weinbach.