TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

ZombiGurl Freakmaker opens with a lot of time lapsed film about plant life, it almost feels like a nature show, but then the creepy 70s horror music starts. We then see Donald Pleasance playing a Mad Doctor that is obsessed with trying to splice together Human DNA with plant material. The Doctor reminds me of the Evil Dr. in Eyes Without a Face, complete with living in a secluded mansion with a pack of mad barking dogs. He has an assistant, Mr. Lynch, that is deformed and keeps promising him a cure if only he will help the Dr. with his freakish research. Mr Lynch is played by Tom Baker who goes on to play the Doctor in the Doctor Who series. The Mad Dr. also keeps some sort strange plant in his laboratory that he feeds live Rabbits to. Freakmaker seems to borrow a lot from Tod Browning's 1932 Freaks. Mr. Lynch runs the carnival and gets his victims for the Dr.'s experiments from the Carnival. The Carnival has a side show showing various "Freaks", I am pretty sure these were real people with birth deformities. I am sure this must have been a controversial decision to use real people with deformities instead using make up, but I don't think this movie is one of the Video Nasties from the 70s. I wonder how it managed to get past the censors? There is even a dinner scene very similar to Freaks where they declare "he's one of us". Eventually the Freaks decide to turn on one of their own, also similar to a scene in Freaks. Even though Donald Pleasance and Tom Baker give good performances in their roles, there really just isn't much of a plot here. The special FX are pretty silly looking with a giant rubber suited "Mutation" that looks like a giant human Venus Fly Trap. Most of the film is slow moving but it is still entertaining in that strange psychedelic 70s way.

Vomitron_G A weird, obscure gem that rightfully deserves some form of cult status. I'd call it a genuine freak-movie classic, done vintage 70's B-movie style.As much as it is a "freakshow" flick, it's also a "mad scientist" movie. Donald Pleasance, as Professor Nolter, leads a double life. Seemingly a well-respected University professor, he conducts secret experiments behind the closed doors of his mansion like a regular Dr. Frankenstein, attempting to create the ultimate symbiosis between human and plant life, thus creating a superior being and inevitably a whole new supreme race to walk this earth.In its essence, this all is sleazy, shlocky B-movie territory with gruesome (and also dated and silly-looking) make-up effects, the exploitation of real-life freaks and the portrayal of plenty female nudity. But you just can't help feeling you're watching a true gem. The pace of the film is neither fast nor slow, and a well-structured plot is rather absent. It all boils down to a villainous doctor abducting humans to experiment and the final damsel in distress having to be rescued by a male hero that has simply nothing else to do in the plot than... to rescue her at the end of the movie.Countless movies handle this set-up and plot-structure. One totally random old school classic example would be: 1953's HOUSE OF WAX (starring Vincent Price). THE MUTATIONS doesn't even hold a candle to this 50's classic, as it is far less stylish and has inferior acting from the supporting cast. But it remains a fun obscure 70's classic in its own right. And has enough merits to enjoy it, with the weird & offbeat musical score surely being an added value (in the scene where the first girl gets snatched in the park it even turns into some hectic 70's acid-jazz score - fun stuff).Obviously, this film pays some sort of tribute to Tod Browning's FREAKS (1932), with director Jack Cardiff even unscrupulously saying "Thank you for that 'one of us'-line, Tod" in one specific scene. Knock-off or tribute, either way the scene is one of the highlights of the movie. And there are plenty more so. Watch Pleasance feed a cat and a rabbit to a monstrously deformed meat-eating (plastic) plant. And the 'final frozen shock ending' is a real winner too. So typical, yet so effective.So in short: Recommended for freak-fans and mad scientist lovers and anybody else who digs obscure 70's horror efforts that star a cult-icon like Donald Pleasance.

spoono01 Anytime Tom Baker graced the screen his characters were always memorable. Here he plays a freak with a self loathing that must be seen to be believed. The story concerns a scientist who tries to turn people into plants. He succeeds with a cross between human and venus fly trap. The makeup isn't great, but it does the job. First time director Jack Cardiff made a great little horror film. Donald Pleasence plays the doctor. I saw this on Cinemax during the 90's. Basil Kirchin from Abominable Dr. Phibes did the music. I wish this was out on DVD. Columbia Pictures has done worse.

hexen53 How on earth have I never seen this film before? I watched it tonight 'cause there was nothing else on Cable (again) - lucky me!It started with some time-lapse film of plant-life and looked like a programme from the Open University - but then the soundtrack signalled something strange was happening..."Mutations" owes a lot to Tod Browning's "Freaks" but offers loads more: some nice 70's nudity; plants that eat live rabbits (why not pet food?); dialogue that mentions "cloning dinosaurs"; a soundtrack that judders from spaced-out, slowed-down, phased bass to free form jazz. This is a minestrone of madness with some nice inconsitencies in the plot. Great!Tom Baker was obviously heavily influenced by his role in this film and took most of the wardrobe with him for Dr Who!