For this month’s installment of “TV Terrors” we chomp back into Hulu‘s short-lived zombie series “Freakish,” which aired on Hulu for two seasons between 2016 and 2018.
There’s just something appealing to a lot of horror creators about mixing the school setting with flesh-eating zombies. Clashing teen hormones with the undead just seems to be a source of consistent inspiration, and Hulu’s “Freakish” is really no exception.
The American horror drama from Hulu centered on the students of Kent High School. One seemingly mundane Saturday afternoon, some students are forced to sit in on detention, while various other students go about their random activities.
We follow Grover Jones, a lovelorn student who decides to sneak into school and pretend he’s stuck in detention as a means of getting close to his crush Violet Adams. Much to his, and everyone’s horror, the local chemical plant that is the center of their town explodes, creating a virtual man-made disaster involving a massive radiation leak. Despite the insistence by the school coach and classmates to stay inside and wait for help, many students venture out into the radiation to look for their families. Meanwhile others (students and main cast members Mary, athlete Lashawn, his friend Noodle, girlfriend Zoe, school bully Diesel, and Barrett and Natalie) remain in doors.
Before long the students return sick, claiming that most of the town are all dead. Almost immediately it becomes apparent what’s unfolding as the returning sick students all re-emerge as flesh-eating zombies, hungry for the other students. Now it’s basically up to Grover and the others to fortify the school and kill off the remaining walking dead. Most of the series involves the remaining students anxiously trying to keep the rising tide of the walking dead out of the school, all while coming to terms with their new environment and learning, of course, to work with each other to survive. Despite leaning heavily on teen drama, “Freakish” packed a good punch as a zombie horror series, featuring some creepy moments of zombie carnage. This includes a really intense sequence in the school’s underground bunker.
Your mileage with Hulu’s “Freakish” may vary as I tend to describe it as Dawn of the Dead 2004 meets “Degrassi: The Next Generation.” The latter might bug a lot of readers, but I am someone that is an unabashed fan of both “The Next Generation” and the Netflix reboot, so I really never minded it all that much. The producers appealed more heavily toward teens by casting a slew of young actors, all of whom were either well known Canadian performers, or very popular internet personalities.
Among them were Disney Channel Alums Leo Howard and Adam Hicks, web personalities like Liza Koshy, Saxon Sharbino, and Amanda Steele, as well as Aislinn Paul, and “The Walking Dead” stalwart Chad Coleman, respectively. The writers always kept the series at a brisk pace, moving the narrative forward every episode, while also presenting a revolving door of cast members. If you think “The Walking Dead” killed off characters easily, “Freakish” knocks off cast members like it’s a bodily function. Even characters that you think are going to take center stage in the central mystery are abruptly taken out.
For the most part, the cast are pretty good in their respective roles, including Liza Koshy who is shockingly engaging as Violet. Leo Howard is also very good as the central protagonist Grover who mostly takes charge of the survivors struggling to keep the zombies out of the school, all the while becoming entrenched in the mysterious plant explosion. The latter becomes a larger plot point, as the students struggle to figure out what caused the disaster, while they realize that any military seeking out survivors are less interested in getting them to safety and more about silencing them.
Hulu’s “Freakish” pulls off the amalgam of drama, horror, science fiction, and mystery well, planting some firm scares and jolts with the zombies, all of whom always seem to find a way inside their safe haven. Sadly, as the series arc progressed with the bigger mystery involving the government’s role in the plant explosion, Hulu cancelled the series after two seasons and twenty episodes. This left a ton of sub-plots, and side plots dangling, unresolved for fans. The biggest of which being what happened to Grover, and why wasn’t he affected by the radiation?
Hulu never really offered any explanation on where they were headed with the larger conspiracy premise, and “Freakish” just stopped unceremoniously. It’s a shame, as the series does offer some great horror entertainment and creative albeit addictive storytelling.
Is It On DVD/Blu-ray/Streaming? Thankfully the complete (more or less) series can still be streamed on Hulu, and can also be streamed on YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Apple TV, Vudu, and Amazon Prime Video.
Horror and science fiction have always been a part of the television canvas, and constant attempts have been made over the years to produce classic entertainment. Some have fallen by the wayside, while others became mainstream phenomena. With “TV Terrors,” we take a look back at the many genre efforts from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, exploring some shows that became cult classics, and others that sank into obscurity.
The post Hulu’s “Freakish” Blended ‘Dawn of the Dead’ With “Degrassi” for Short-Lived Zombie Series [TV Terrors] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.