Freak, Teens go Camping...Carnage Ensues

Yep...we have another teens go camping and die horribly story.  Yep...they seek pre-marital sex and get taken apart instead.  Morality tale.  Even worse...there might be some marijuana smoking going on.  Our film today is a brief one, just under an hour, but wow!  The gore f/x are amazing (Matthew Sorenson), and the acting is terrific.  Original plot?  Okay, maybe not, but it pulls from some of our favorite films of the 80s as opposed to "Ordinary People" or "Silkwood."  Today we look at 2020's "Freak," directed by Lucky Cerruti.

As our film opens, two campers seeking pre-marital sex are torn apart in the most gory fashion.  The titular freak, deformed and mutated, wanders into their camp with a little saw and goes to town.  Fast forward, Jenna (Sasha Van Cott) and her brother Ryan (Dorran Boucher) join Henry (Jameson Batt) and his GF Kendra (Annachristi Cordes) and the hunk Jake (Hunter Wilson) in a camping trip in the woods. We like Jake.  He seems nice and is very respectful to "loner" Jenna. Uh oh...Jake brings them to a part of the wilderness that is the subject of an urban legend.  In these parts, a deformed boy was born.  At the age of five, the boy is left in the woods by his parents and turns into a killing machine.  This freak enjoys shredding campers.  Is it true?  Most people say no.  But...it is true.

Now our freak converges on our campers.  At first he just watches them through the trees.  Uh oh, he seems to develop a crush on the loner Jenna.  Like most freaks, all he wants is a little love and understanding and perhaps Jenna would be amenable to giving it to him.  Alas, Jenna is not that weird.  The thing attacks them one by one.  His methods of murder are incredibly gory.  Where is this all going?  Fans of 1980s slasher or camping in the woods films might see where its going.  In any event, it will be incredibly gory...and our freak is grotesque.

Do any of these campers have a chance of surviving until the end credits?  Does Jenna have what it takes to be a "final girl," and if so, does our freak have special plans for her?  After those slasher films of the 1980s, why would any teen go camping in the woods?  Okay, I realize pre-marital sex and mosquitos all around is a big lure.  For a spirited and very gory 1980s type slasher film, see "Freak."