This is How Movies Should Be Made

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

While marginally better than most of director Fred Olen Ray's and executive producer Charles Band's most recent output, SIDESHOW still emerges as only a mediocre rendering of a decent concept.Five teens (two guys and two girls on blind dates and the wheelchair-bound kid brother of one of the boys) spend the evening at a traveling carnival and end up p1ssing off dwarf Abbot Graves (Phil Fondacaro, the contemporary answer to Angelo Rossitto), who runs the "Doctor Graves Horrors of Nature" sideshow exhibit--an attraction which features such freaks as Conjoin-O (a guy with a monster in his belly), Aelita the inside-out girl, Hans the bug boy and Digestina (a woman who lives in a pool of digestive fluid) (?!) Abbot doesn't take too kindly to being pushed around by one of the kids and decides to get even with them all by turning their worst fears or insecurities into reality.The characters aren't fully developed enough to get elicit much sympathy or interest and their eventual transformations are unfortunately rather predictable (a girl who hates being touched is turned into a doll in a glass cage, another who is insecure about her body is turned into a faceless woman with a nice body, etc.), but the film is reasonably well-made given the budget, the acting is acceptable and the make-up FX by Gabe Bartalos are pretty good. Also bit parts are played by Ray regulars Ross Hagen (as the sheriff), Brinke Stevens (fortune teller), Pete Spellos (freak with a monster in his belly) and Richard Gabai (game huckster).

What appears to be an average B-Movie style develops into an enjoyable delve into Twilight Zone-esque Sci-Fi.Well crafted ideas, apart from the 'human budgie'(!?), keeps it interesting although the camera action leaves you feeling your watching a TV movie rather than a cinema flick.Slows down near the end but rejects a cliched finale.Not bad.

A group of teenagers mess with the ringleader of a freak sideshow and of course the ringleader takes it upon himself to teach the teenagers a nasty lesson.Brinke Stevens is totally wasted in a cameo performance, the ending is terrible, and the special effects are pretty sorry, even by Fred Olen Ray's standards. Rent Jack-O or Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers instead.Rated R for Nudity, Language, Graphic Violence, and a Mild Sexual Situation.

The film has kind of a cool concept, but suffers from a poor script and extremely slow pacing. Some of the performers are fun to watch especially with the material they were given. One standout is Jeana Blackman who plays the role of Jeanie. Even with the problems with the script, she manages to bring a depth to her character and finds some very nice moments - especially in the scene where she and Jamie Martz are buying the popcorn.All told, I'd probably rate this movie a C-/C.