Freaks

It is ridiculously coy about what is going on... Just start the movie, guys!

It's just not special enough.

[T]he film shrewdly keeps us inside Chloe's head, filtered through her very limited comprehension of her burgeoning and truly awesome abilities.

Likewise, the movie seems restrained by its budget, which is unfortunate because the imagination it shows its promising. It's only in materially realizing itself where it falls short.

It's watchable and intriguing stuff, yet also silly and inconsistent.

Its most effective trick, though, is to trap us all inside Chloe's head, presenting a child's-eye view of a world gone incomprehensibly mad.

A surprising and refreshing riff on "gifted child" flicks like Firestarter or The Fury.

In terms of the visual effects, writing, acting and overall package, you won't have seen anything quite like Freaks. It is both sci-fi and horror, that doesn't look like either at first, and raises the standard for both too.

Good science fiction is rarely exactly about what we see on screen. In that sense Freaks isn't about Chloe's powers, it's about being different from those around you, about persecution, about feeling unwanted.

Freaks just offered up mutant fans the X-Men film we deserve.