The Curse of Freak Out

The Omen, Poltergeist, The Exorcist ... to the list of horror flicks with seemingly cursed productions, you can now add Freak Out, the low budget horror-comedy that blighted the lives of all involved.

At last count, the curse of Freak Out had closed down one shop and one cinema, demolished two other commercial properties, lost six actors (one to the grave), one foreskin, and annihilated the air conditioning at one screening to the point of nearly giving the audience heatstroke.

The apparently cursed low-budget film also had a good go at ruining the romantic lives of all involved: every snugly coupled-up member of the production team was single by the end of the shoot, resulting in plenty of heartbreak – and plenty of tears, the finishing touch to the already winning blood-and-sweat combo the film had produced.

Then there were apparently more minor mishaps, which were ultimately more crucial to the film: their decrepit 16mm camera (no shot-on-video nonsense here) conked out, and was fried almost beyond repair by a local electrician.

To make matters worse, much of the sound recording equipment and half the sound discs swere half inched by some light-fingered pikey from a sound technician’s car. Despite these technical setbacks and irreversible difficulties such as the death of actor Desmond Cullum Jones at the age of 77, the production soldiered on. After four years of development hell and another two spent floating around festivals, Freak Out makes its way to swanky 2-disc DVD on May 29th.

Don’t be put off by the curse; it’s not all bad -- at one point, the crew had all but secured a cameo from the “legendary” Freddie Prinze Jnr before the curse scuppered that deal – thank goodness for small blessings, eh?

An interview with the filmmakers behind Freak Out is available on the Penny Blood website.

IMDB link