Freaks (2018)

Superhero stories tend to be the most unrealistic to me.  First off, people seem to develop incredible powers in one generation.  That’s not how evolution works.  It would be a gradual buildup, if anything.  For that matter, the powers are always useful.  Flying.  Invisibility.  Telepathy.  These are all easy to take advantage of.  You never hear of someone with a powerful sneeze.  How is it that someone doesn’t get rapid hair growth?  (Maybe they do and we don’t hear of it.)

This is the issue with Freaks.  We have a father and daughter sealed in their house, with the father going out occasionally to get supplies.  He tells his daughter that there are bad people out there.  This is why he’s training her to live with the neighbors.

We come to find out that Freaks, politely called Abnormals, have abilities.  Henry, the father can slow time.  Chloe, the daughter, has powerful mental abilities, like the power of suggestion.  There’s also a strange man outside with an ice-cream truck.  This turns out to be Chloe’s maternal grandfather.  He can turn invisible.  Chloe’s mother is presumed dead, which isn’t true.

So, let me get this straight.  A man who can become invisible ha a daughter who can fly.  The flying woman hooks up with a man who can control time to produce a daughter who can control people’s minds and have psychic communications with people.  Sounds like it makes sense.  This is another issue I’ve had.  How is it that the abilities are all over the place?

I’ll admit that the story focuses more on Chloe and Henry living in fear.  I don’t think much attention was paid to the specific abilities.  It was more about society’s reaction to them.  It’s kind of scary to have a 7-year-old girl who can make you do things.  She learns quickly enough that she can make an armed man turn his gun on himself with some effort.

To an extent, the movie does pretty well with what it has.  It’s a fairly solid story, even if it is somewhat simple.  It’s also maybe a bit closer to what would really happen.  I doubt very much that there would be some posh school for exceptional children.  We’d probably end up with something like the movie’s Abnormal Defense Force.

This strikes me as something that was intended to be a pilot for a TV series, or at least the first in a series of movies.  It’s similar enough to other mutant movies that it comes across as a bit generic.  Any subsequent movies would probably have to up their game a bit.  I’m hoping that’s the plan.  I would like to see where a sequel goes.

IMDb page