{"id":11806,"date":"2025-05-02T22:08:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T02:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11806"},"modified":"2025-05-02T22:09:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T02:09:04","slug":"freaky-tales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/05\/02\/freaky-tales\/","title":{"rendered":"Freaky Tales"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Freaky Tales<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Action-Comedy-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, language throughout including slurs, sexual content, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Raphael Saadiq\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jac Fitzgerald\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 4, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Too $hort, Normani, Dominique Thorn, Ji-Young Joo, Jack Champion, Angus Cloud, Keir Gilchrist, Michelle Farrah Huang, Marteen, Jordan Gomes, DeMario Symba Driver, Tim Armstrong, Marshawn Lynch, Natalia Dominguez, Tom Hanks.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Performances by Aphids! and Gulch<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s been a while since we had an anthology movie. I think the last one was the holiday-themed Nightmare on 34th<\/sup> Street. Of course, nothing will ever top Creepshow, the pinnacle of anthology films. The George A. Romero-Stephen King collaboration still rocks after 43 years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Freaky Tales<\/strong>, written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel), isn\u2019t actually a horror movie. Oh, it\u2019s super-violent and super-bloody alright, but it doesn\u2019t tell scary stories. Its monsters are of the human variety- i.e. Nazi skinheads, biker thugs and a corrupt cop. It has a slight sci-fi slant with a mysterious green light that seems to grant superpowers. At one point, it enables a city bus (driven by Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch) to take flight. It\u2019s just one of many wonderfully weird that happens over the course of four freaky (interconnected) tales narrated by rapper Too $hort.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Set in 1987 Oakland, the first story \u201cStrength in Numbers: The Gilman Strikes Back\u201d, set at the real-life music venue 924 Gilman Street, deals with the ongoing rivalry between punk rockers and Nazi skinheads. The racists keep showing up to assault clubgoers and vandalize the place. Two of them, Tina (Yoo, Until Dawn) and Lucid (Champion, Scream VI), decide enough is enough. They encourage everybody to take up arms and fight back. It leads to a bloody skirmish between the two groups.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The second one \u201cDon\u2019t Fight the Feeling\u201d, the weakest of the four, centers on female rap duo Danger Zone. Barbie (Thorne, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Entice (R&B singer Normani) are looking to make a name for themselves. They get their shot when they\u2019re invited to perform with rapper Too Short (played by rapper Driver) in what turns out to be a rap battle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The third tale \u201cBorn to Mack\u201d stars Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) as career criminal Clint. He wants to retire so he can focus on his family. His dreams are dashed when somebody with a grudge murders his pregnant wife (Dominguez). Now with nothing left to lose, he turns down the one last job he\u2019s ordered to perform.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The final segment \u201cThe Legend of Sleepy Floyd\u201d brings everything full circle. The \u201cone last job\u201d turns out to be a heist, a series of them actually, orchestrated by crime boss\/corrupt cop \u201cThe Guy\u201d (Mendelsohn, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). The plan to rob the home of several members of the Golden State Warriors including star player Sleepy Floyd (Ellis, Top Gun: Maverick) during a game. During the robbery, Floyd\u2019s family is attacked and his girlfriend dies. He\u2019s devastated, but instead of drowning in misery, he calls on the power of \u201cPsytopics\u201d (a cult that helps people tap into their inner powers or some such nonsense) to help him get revenge against the gang responsible. And boy, does he ever! It\u2019s an even bloodier fight than the one in the first segment.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Freaky Tales<\/strong> had me at 1987. Everybody has their favorite year; that\u2019s mine. Boden and Fleck capture it perfectly. It feels completely authentic. I love that they set a pivotal scene at a movie theater where characters from the first two tales have just seen The Lost Boys. They all have the same question. If the grandfather knew about the vampires in Santa Carla, why didn\u2019t he say something sooner? The other titles on the marquee are Ishtar, Raising Arizona, Radio Days and Creepshow 2 (another anthology). Here\u2019s something only a true movie aficionado would notice. The action takes place on May 10. The Lost Boys didn\u2019t come out until July 31. Also, Ishtar opened on May 15. I love spotting things like that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a serious undercurrent flowing through Freaky Tales<\/strong>. It deals with the open racism of the late 80s when people could still spout vile racist garbage without fear of being cancelled. Take The Guy. In segment 2, he shows up at the ice cream parlor where Barbie and Entice work and makes inappropriate comments both racial and sexual. Then, of course, there\u2019s the Nazi gang. We first meet them driving past the aforementioned cinema shouting terrible things at the patrons (the black girls). It\u2019s only fitting that the hero of the movie is a black man- i.e. Sleepy Floyd.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What can I say about the acting in Freaky Tales<\/strong>? Honestly, there are no bad performances in the film. Everybody seems to be having a great time so why rain on their parade? Tom Hanks puts in a cameo as a video store clerk who runs down his top five underdog movies for Clint. They are Rocky (an obvious choice), Hoosiers, The Dirty Dozen, The Verdict and, even though he doesn\u2019t actually say the title, Breaking Away. It\u2019s a great scene. BTW, Tom Hanks and producer Poppy Hanks are NOT related. Some people are saying she\u2019s his daughter, but she\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is plenty of gory violence in Freaky Tales<\/strong>. There are two awesome fight scenes in which Nazis and other dirtbags are dispatched by the score. One of the baddies is played by the late Angus Cloud (Abigail) in one of his final performances. I\u2019m a little disappointed the gore is CGI. They should have gone with stage blood to make it feel more like a product of the 80s. To the makers\u2019 credit, they show cigarette burns (signaling a reel change) in the upper right corner. Remember those?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I enjoyed Freaky Tales<\/strong> immensely. It\u2019s fun and funny. It has serious themes, but the makers never allow their film to get bogged down. They keep it moving along at a nice clip. I can see where it might not play to mainstream audiences, but I have a feeling it\u2019ll find its fans when it hits streaming. If any movie deserves a cult, it\u2019s Freaky Tales<\/strong>.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freaky Tales (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Action-Comedy-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, language throughout including slurs, sexual content, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Raphael Saadiq\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jac Fitzgerald\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 4, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Too $hort, Normani, Dominique […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Freaky-Tales-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11824,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11806\/revisions\/11824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}