Freaked

This article is about the film. For the DC Talk tribute album, see Freaked! For similar uses, see Freak (disambiguation).

Freaked
American VHS cover
Directed by
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJamie Thompson
Edited byMalcolm Campbell
Music by
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • April 24, 1993 (1993-04-24) (USA Film Festival)
  • May 31, 1993 (1993-05-31) (Italy)
  • October 1, 1993 (1993-10-01) (US)
Running time
82 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Budget$12 million[1]
Box office$29,296[2]

Freaked is a 1993 American black comedy film directed by Tom Stern and Alex Winter, both of whom wrote the screenplay with Tim Burns. Winter also starred in the lead role. Both were involved in the short-lived MTV sketch comedy show The Idiot Box, and Freaked retains the same brand of surreal humour seen in the show. Freaked was Alex Winter's last feature film before he shifted to cameo and television films for many years until 2013's Grand Piano.

Originally conceived as a low-budget horror film featuring the band Butthole Surfers,[3] Freaked went through a number of rewrites, eventually developing into a black comedy set within a sideshow, which was picked up by 20th Century Fox for a feature film. After several poor test screenings and a change in studio executives who then found the film too "weird," the film was pulled from a wide distribution (except for Australia and Japan) and only played on two screens in the United States.

  1. ^ "Alex Winter Discusses His 1993 Cult Hit 'Freaked,' Says 'Bill & Ted 3' A Long Way Off From Happening". IndieWire. January 22, 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  2. ^ "Freaked (1993)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  3. ^ Stern, Tom, Winter, Alex (2005). DVD Commentary for 'Freaked' (DVD). Anchor Bay.