Freaky Tales
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 4, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
14
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 23, 2025
With its VHS bargain-bin aesthetic, this is scuzzily enjoyable stuff. Read full review
20
The TimesKevin MaherApr 18, 2025
The bogus tone is grating from the start. It’s vanilla Quentin Tarantino, featuring long, diner-based exchanges, inexplicably glowing boxes and sudden eruptions of violence. Yet, unlike Tarantino, the dialogue is bland, the violence augmented with CGI gore, the set-ups devoid of jeopardy. Read full review
60
EmpireBen TravisApr 14, 2025
Freaky Tales never amounts to more than the sum of its parts — but those parts, while uneven, are always high-energy and entertaining. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonApr 7, 2025
It’s rousing stuff and a bit glib. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireApr 4, 2025
The scratchy, VHS-quality visuals and cheesy graphics of the film’s opening suggest that we shouldn’t take any of this too seriously, but rather enjoy the lo-fi, ‘80s nostalgia trip. And a scrappy, underdog enthusiasm is unmistakable throughout. Read full review
63
Washington PostTy BurrApr 3, 2025
The mystery is why a movie so hell-bent on having fun feels so formulaic. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMark MeszorosApr 3, 2025
It’s infectious, the love Freaky Tales has for the Oakland, Calif., of the mid-1980s. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerApr 3, 2025
It’s hard to blame the actors for not grasping the tone when it seems to elude the filmmakers. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 3, 2025
High on revolutionary spirit, Freaky Tales is a frisky, frantic pastiche that doesn’t always make sense. . . Yet the visuals are meaty, and the filmmakers (whose last feature collaboration was on “Captain Marvel” in 2019) show considerable affection for their movie’s setting. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckApr 2, 2025
What’s never quite fleshed out here is why this all should resonate with us — or how these haphazard moments, albeit compelling, weave together in the cohesive way the filmmakers seem to promise. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerApr 2, 2025
That the movie is “only” a silly romp makes it all the more charming to watch Boden and Fleck find a less mechanical, less programmatic way to have fun. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineJim VorelApr 1, 2025
Together, these intersecting storylines yield more than enough funny, gross and surprisingly sweet moments to keep Freaky Tales chugging merrily along, even though it feels quite clearly calculated for the midnight festival crowd in particular. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJake ColeApr 1, 2025
For all of its spiritedness, Freaky Tales wants for the sense of invention that defines the films that it references and whose moves it often falls back on borrowing. Read full review
64
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 31, 2025
Freaky Tales has neither the patience nor the depth to imagine any one person or story with a legitimate hook. Read full review
70
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiFeb 2, 2024
Freaky Tales may not be a perfect film, but it will definitely leave a strong impression on you long after the credits roll. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJan 30, 2024
It diverts for a while, only to dissipate almost immediately upon conclusion. Read full review
60
IGNClint GageJan 25, 2024
Captain Marvel directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's (sometimes very) fun anthology/love letter to Oakland, California doesn’t add enough of its own unique spirit to quite live up to its influences. Read full review
42
The Film StageJake Kring-SchreifelsJan 25, 2024
The characters here are half-baked, archetypes meant to fit into this semi-supernatural mystery box without the cathartic release that defeating various hate-groups should have. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 20, 2024
The first-person passion is genuine. The form its being presented in feels slightly secondhand. Read full review
63
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJan 20, 2024
Even though you definitely don’t leave contemplating the narrative, the detailed and authentic ‘80s aesthetic conjures a spell. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyDevan CogganJan 20, 2024
It’s a hyperspecific vision of the Bay that won’t connect with everyone, and in truth, Freaky Tales seems destined to be more of a cult favorite than a genre-hopping blockbuster. But even with all the psychic energy and violent revenge fantasies, it’s the performances that help keep this tale grounded. Read full review
80
TheWrapJan 19, 2024
Freaky Tales is a great time that knows how to channel its many loves (of the Bay Area, of movies) into an infectious force. Come for the campy, bloody fun but stay for the clear love for the mediums it’s working in: Movies and memory. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 19, 2024
Freaky Tales is a genre-defying riot. Come for the crazy mix tape of circuitously connected plotlines, stay for the joyous explosion of vintage breakdancing on the end credits. Read full review
70
Screen DailyAmber WilkinsonJan 19, 2024
[Boden and Fleck] marry splashes of dry humour to gallons of blood, and feature every musical genre from punk to hip-hop while connecting the stories to a strange green glow in the sky. If the end result never quite achieves the style and bite of the likes of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, it is still a lot of fun. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 19, 2024
Freaky Tales takes nearly 40 minutes to find its footing, but once it kicks in, there’s roughly an hour of grindhouse glory ahead (assuming streaming audiences make it that far). Read full review
33
IndieWireRyan LattanzioJan 19, 2024
Freaky Tales is Boden and Fleck’s attempt at applying their studio lessons learned circa “Captain Marvel” to something supposedly more personal, but this film just ends up only repeating that one’s most grating tendencies. Read full review
42
The PlaylistMarshall ShafferJan 19, 2024
[Boden and Fleck] re-emerge carrying some of the hallmarks of comic book cinema as well: an overemphasis on in-jokes, a sprawling web of larger-than-life yet flimsy characters, and a belief that a kick-ass fight scene at the end can overwrite many of the wrongs that came before. Read full review
60
ColliderTherese LacsonJan 19, 2024
Ultimately, Freaky Tales works if you don't look too hard at it. It's a fun time and some of the most extreme scenes will make you forget any plot holes or inconsistencies. Read full review
40
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 19, 2024
For a film so clearly designed to be fun above all else, it ends up being a bizarre slog. Read full review
60
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 19, 2024
You can cut-and-paste all your adolescent obsessions into a giant collage (and recruit Pedro Pascal and Ben Mendelsohn to participate in the madness), but that doesn’t mean it’ll amount to more than a messy, insubstantial grab bag of your favorite things. Read full review
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