By Joe O’Shansky
It’s difficult to articulate why you fell in love with a movie at first sight when you want everyone who might read it to go in cold. I definitely went in cold with Freaky Tales. Aside from noticing a poster proclaiming that Oakland was hella weird in 1987, a smattering of positive reactions, with comparisons to several films I like/love, that’s all I had to go on, outside of it featuring Pedro Pascal and Ben Mendelsohn. And I fell in love.
Then I saw it. Then, I saw it again. It’s a movie that demands a big screen and a 10,000 watt surround system. To be enjoyed in a (likely unpopulated) theater with a buddy, at least. All of that is largely due to Lionsgate fucking up the release, inadvertently or otherwise, but that’s another story. Thankfully I did rope a buddy into it and (spoiler alert) he loved this bad boy, too.
So I’m not really gonna tell you what happens. By the time time you read this it’ll be streaming (it hits VOD on April 25th, 2025). So, on that day, just turn out the lights, fire this punk rock masterpiece up in the highest fidelity at your disposal, and definitely smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.
Though, I will tell you 10 Reasons why Freaky Tales is the shit, in the vaguest possible terms.
Nazi/Punk gang warfare.
Samurai All-Stars
A non-linear, interlocking anthological tale of strife, corruption and vengeance in a very special place and time.
Surprising, period specific cameos!
Creativity. From shifting aspect ratios, to ultra-stylized, bloody action, to animated thoughts fucking you in the face. You will not know what’s coming at you next, or when. Anyone telling you this is Stranger Things in Oakland is wrong.
Minor criticism: Psytopics is underbaked as a deus ex machina device but, like an underbaked chocolate chip cookie, kinda better that way.
Jay Ellis is a 100% badass.
Really the whole cast rules, with Ellis, Pascal (also a bad motherfucker), and Mendelsohn (perfecting the word “creep”) being the obvious stand outs. Special shout out to Angus Cloud’s ASMR hitman. RIP, dude.
If you hear, “DIE NAZI SCUM!” and don’t pump your fist, I don’t want to know you.
It’s funny as fuck.
I probably said too much, but there it is. Besides, you’ll have no idea how it all fits together anyway. The joy is in the discovery.
Freaky Tales is now available on Digital VOD.