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Codex Atanicus
Codex Atanicus is a three story anthology by Spanish director Carlos Atanes. Before watching the movie I never heard of the guy, but the introduction video on the DVD by one of his regular actresses Arantxa Peņa made me realize that I'm in for a hell of a ride. Experimental, bizarre, sick, strange - these are some of the words that describe the stories contained in Codex Atanicus. The anthology is opened by a 20 minute short from 1995 called Metaminds & Metabodies. I am really not into this kind of experimental videos, but I will try to summarize. It opens with a girl singing in the club. Everything looks ultra underground and the girl is connected with some wires to the walls. Strange people are watching her...
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Movie Review: Freak Out

Story
Merv Doody has been watching horror films all his life, and seems to know everything there is to know about slashers and serial killers. One day a psychotic fellow from the local asylum shows up in Merv's home and tries to kill him, but is very unsuccessful in doing so. So Merv, the big horror fan, together with his best mate Onkey, takes the looney under their wings, and tries to teach him how to become a murderous killing machine, and so be able to make the greatest slasher the world has ever seen. Problem though is that the psycho learns too well, and soon becomes a threat to everyone around, even to themselves.

Comments
Freak is an hilarious British horror comedy about two guys who turns a unsuccessful psychopath into a mean killing machine. Since it's a British horror comedy, it might make you think of Shaun of the Dead, and it's about just as funny with a bit more raw kind of humour, something that I really appreciated. The humour is a bit more nasty at places, is truly funny, but never takes it too far which was a good thing as well. I was happy to see that it was not too over-the-top, and so the humour really worked well all the way through with a couple of scenes that were actually so funny, I had to rewind and watch them again.

In the beginning of the movie are told the story of how an innocent little vegetarian boy later became a twisted psychopath, or a sissy killing machine, whatever you'd wanna call it. And right there from the start, I was sure I was in for a great hilarious time, and luckily Freak Out delivered all the way through, and not only that but the very ending left nothing to wish for either. What we're dealing with is a low-budget movie, but Christian James and c/o has truly worked wonders with it, delivering an awesome story, humour that really works, along with good directing and last but definitely not least, a pretty awesome score.

Freak Out Freak Out

The score itself is definitely worth mentioning since it has these type of songs with funny lyrics about what happens in the movie. This is something I really dig and Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's have been known to use it in their movies, and it adds so much more to the overall experience. But apart from the lyrics being hilarious, the music used is also really catchy and adds a great feel to the whole film. At times I found myself to be so caught up in the music and the lyrics that I didn't pay full attention to what was going on on-screen. So there was yet another reason to rewind.

When I started to watch Freak Out, I didn't expect too much from it, but I soon became aware of just how clever and funny the movie turned out to be. The makers of the film seemed to pretty much have nailed everything pretty much on the spot, and even if some stuff may not have been that great, I was way too caught up in the greatness of it all to even notice the "bad" things. So don't think of it as yet another low-budget horror flick as it's actually well worth tracking down. I promise you won't regret it.

Final Comments
Freak Out turned out to be a hoot! It's a comedy with a horror theme that is both clever and hilarious. I just watched it last night, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna re-watch it in the next couple of days again because that's how good it was. Truly recommended.

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Freak Out

ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2004
DIRECTOR: Christian James
WRITING CREDITS: Christian James, Dan Palmer
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: James Heathcote, Dan Palmer, Nicola Connell
COUNTRY: UK
RUNTIME: 92 min

RATING: 9/10

Freak Out Website/IMDB Click here
Freak Out Trailer Click here

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