Hideous! (1997) User Reviews

Something Okay From Full Moon

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 22 August 2016]

A group of rival collectors of severely deformed freakish human beings and the FBI agents that are investigating them must battle against some of their collections which aren't as dead as they seem...

Full Moon makes cheap movies, often involving puppets and often with gratuitous nudity. This movie is clearly cheap, but there are no puppets and even the nudity seems okay because it is done in a humorous manner. This is not a "good" film, but compared to just about everything else Charlie Band has touched, it is actually alright.

Now, not that I would recommend this, but if it happens to be on or turn up on your Netflix queue, and you have a few friends and a case of beer, you could do worse than this. At least it's not "The Dead Want Women".

Enjoyable horror/comedy

[BloodTheTelepathicDog · 6/10 · 19 April 2005]

Much like Head of the Family, you'll laugh occasionally, get to see solid effects and leer at a naked Jakki Lovell. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie which I bought for a buck(well worth it) off EBay. Although it doesn't elicit as many laughs as Head of the Family it is still enjoyable.

The humans involved aren't really the type of characters you'd root for, so I found myself cheering on the oddities. The detective, O'Donnell gives the best performance here, but is outshined by Jacqueline Lovell and her revealing outfits. She has a knack for delivering one-liners that most Barbie-doll types seem to not possess. I'd like to see her in more films like this, but she seems to have settled into the softcore industry.

This isn't to be taken seriously, it's meant to entertain, which so many mainstream films(Mulholland Drive and Unbreakable) fail to do nowadays.

The Good, The Bad & The HIDEOUS!

[Squrpleboy · 5/10 · 28 March 2004]

Ok, with a title like HIDEOUS! you know right off-the-bat that the

filmmakers weren't out to win any Oscars with this offering.

Surprisingly though, what director Charles Band and his co-horts

at Full Moon Pictures do accomplish is a much better B-movie

than one might expect.



The plot is simple yet completely deranged: a "biological oddities

broker", Belinda Yost (Tracy May), and her two, wealthy, high-profile

collector clients, Napolean Lazar (Mel Johnson Jr.) and Dr. Lorca

(Michael Citriniti), square off against one another over a deformed

specimen found at a local sewer filtration plant. One has his half- naked, gorilla-mask wearing assistant Sheila (Jaqueline Lovell)

steal it while the other hires a P.I., Det. Kantor (Gerard O' Donnell)

to track it down. Everyone winds up in a strange, Transylvanian

castlesque mansion fighting one another until, lo-and-behold,

monsters come to life and all hell breaks loose!



Granted the story isn't great, or barely even good, but the film does

manage to shine in a few areas. The cinematography, despite

what is obviously constructed on a reduced budget, is top-notch.

The film is also well-directed, given the poor material with which it

contends. Well paced and shot. And some of the portrayals and

acting/actors are much better than what one might encounter in

similar features and situations; on one end, fine performances are

given by Lovell (who is very easy on the eyes, I might add), May and

O'Donnell (O'Donnell should be making "real" pictures), but then

we have to contend with over-indulgent, ham from Citriniti,

Johnson Jr. and Rhonda Griffin. It comes out even I suppose.



But the most disappointing aspect of HIDEOUS! by far has to be

the creature effects. They are just plain awful. The deformed

monstrosities look more like skinned Muppets, yet with 50 times

less articulation. They can barely move, mutter incessantly, run

around oozing goo and bring the possibilities of the picture down

quite considerably. And the "sex-scene" is too unbelievably stupid

to describe, but is a must-see! Yes, HIDEOUS! is meant to have a

comic undertone for certain, but chances are the viewer won't be

laughing "with" the makers of this ugly nugget.



5/10. This all could have been avoided if they'd used

Tupperware...

Be Careful What You Flush...

[azathothpwiggins · 18 May 2020]

HIDEOUS! is another classic from the heyday of Director Charles Band's FULL MOON productions. It has all the right ingredients, including an opening that features two men skimming a huge raw sewage vat for "artifacts"! The fiendish Dr. Lorca (Michael Citriniti) is a collector of such "treasures", and will pay any price to procure them from the sludge. What are these precious finds? Why, freakish mutant fetuses of course.

Trouble breaks out when Lorca's rivals show up at his castle, along with the FBI. Horrible fun ensues.

BEST SCENE IN THE MOVIE: Lorca's faithful assistant, Sheila (Jacqueline Lovell) topless, in leather shorts! Wearing a go-rilla mask! With a gun! In the snow! My friends, this is why god created cinema!...

Is that Your stomach on the floor? Look again.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 17 August 2002]

You have a choice...laugh or upchuck all the way through this one. Slimy, gory and just plain creepy. A sewer worker retrieves hideous deformed fetuses and other biological oddities like a four eyed baby-creature and sells them to a broker(Tracie May)that in turn keeps two depraved collectors(Michael Citriniti and Mel Johnson Jr)in constant envy of each other. Hell breaks loose in the castle of one collector when four pint-sized creatures become animated and go on a killing spree. Jacqueline Lovell brings s-e-x to the mix. Either topless or semi-topless, she seems to be the only redeeming thing offered in this comedic horror dud. Imagine a topless babe wearing short shorts and a gorilla mask. This is all you will want to remember.

A topless babe wearing a gorilla mask is the highlight ..............

[merklekranz · 5/10 · 2 November 2010]

You'll have to decide, if a topless babe (Jacqueline Lovell) wearing a gorilla mask, running around in the snow, is enough incentive to watch "Hideous"? There is fertile ground for plenty of dark humor, as two fanatical collectors of unique biological oddities compete for a prized specimen. When the gorilla masked accomplice of one collector steals the oddity, the other hires a detective (Jerry O'Donnell) to find it. If you close your eyes when the detective is talking, you would swear Tom Sizemore had just walked into the movie. In the end the film degenerates into total silliness, but at least the Tom Sizemore impersonator and the topless gorilla babe make a connection, and seem totally right for each other. - MERK

Another poor Full Moon feature that could have been so much better.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 14 February 2010]

Hideous! starts as sewage worker Martin (Andrew Johnston) fishes some weird mutated foetus embryo chunk of flesh out of a sewer plant, Martin phone's Belinda Yost (Tracie May) who has a nice sideline in supplying 'biological oddities' to wealthy collectors like Dr. Lorca (Michael Citriniti) & Napoleon Lazar (Mel Johnson Jr.). Two doesn't go into one so Belinda calls Lorca & sells him her latest bizarre offering for $650,000 even though Lazr is supposed to have first refusal on everything Belinda sells, annoyed Lazar gets his personal assistant Sheila (Jacqueline Lovell) to steal the mutated freak oddity from Lorca which he is not very happy about. Lorca, Belinda, private detective Kantor (Jerry O'Donnell) & secretary Elvina (Rhonda Griffin) confront Napoleon at his castle but the new freak oddity has strange powers & revives all the other freak oddities which then start killing their human captors...

Produced & directed by Charles Band for his Full Moon Entertainment production company Hideous! is a film which could have & probably should have been great but isn't. As usual Band seems more interested in starting a franchise featuring little monsters or puppets or whatever more than telling a good story, the idea of a horror film revolving around freak biological oddities is great & there's all sorts of scope fro disgusting freakish creatures but Hideous! is slow going & completely fails to use such a concept. It takes about an hour or so before the monsters turn up & meet up with the human cast, that's far too long & there's far too much boring squabbling between Lorca & Napoleon over their respective collections of freaks. It's never made clear why Belinda calls Lorca at the start rather than Napoleon despite the entire premise of the film hinging on that point & I just ended up feeling disappointed at a rather bland & boring film that just shouldn't have been. There's little horror here, there's a few silly moments of slapstick comedy that just feels out of place & not that much actually happens.

The gore levels are none existent, there's a little bit of blood but no actual gore & all the deaths are really lame. There's a little nudity & even a little sexual deviancy as one of the little freaks sucks the tit of the blonde secretary but is that really worth watching Hideous! for? No, it isn't. The film is set mostly inside a castle even though we only ever see a few rooms & it looks quite good but it's never used in any way to create atmosphere or tension, the whole film just feels bland & like not much effort was put into it. I mean this is meant to be a horror film, right? The special make-up effects are alright, the monsters look a bit rubbery but are slime covered & are quite creepy looking in a mutated sort of way although they don't feature that much & don't really do much either.

Like a lot of Band's Full Moon produced films Hideous! was filmed in Romania & the snowy woods & castle location are cool but again totally wasted. The acting is pretty bad with some really bad accents going on although there are no teens which is good & the ladies are pretty attractive.

Hideous! is yet another Full Moon production which should have been great but seems more interested in starting a franchise & selling toy replicas, overall Hideous! is a pretty forgettable film although it's quite well made.

Amusing and diverting direct-to-video horror comedy.

[capkronos · 6/10 · 16 May 2003]

A sewage treatment plant clean-up crew (where do I sign up?!) fish out a red glob "specimen," which turns out to be more than just worthless sludge, but an invaluable formula capable of reviving mutant creatures. What it's doing in the sewer is anyone's guess. After it's stolen by eccentric, unorthodox Dr. Lorca (Michael Citriniti) and his sexy, blonde always topless assistant Sheila (Jacqueline Lovell), the "owners" hire a private detective to get it back. Above characters (plus a ditsy secretary) become trapped inside Lorca's castle home and face off against four bite-size mutant monsters who attack and start killing because they want their independence (!)

Although the little killers will instantly bring to mind Band's Full Moon PUPPET MASTER series, this silly, but very fun, time waster has decent production values, cute slimy puppet monsters and a decent unknown cast (Tracie May and Lovell are especially good). Although Band has fallen into a pit of mini-monster reptitiveness, he has improved as a scriptwriter, and the witty, sarcastic and often very funny dialogue in this film proves it.

A hideously bad attempt at reviving the classic horror film.

[emm · 2/10 · 25 April 1999]

There are several more independent horror cheapies out there, including HIDEOUS!, which comes from a B-movie studio known as Full Moon Productions. Who has ever spoken such terrible dialogue??? The film sort of follows a classic B-movie plot from the 50s involving visitors in a "haunted mansion" run by a bearded guy who's always the perpetrating mastermind behind ghastly ghouls. Admit it! Movies produced on a low, low budget these days aren't as terrifying as they're supposed to, and not even the monsters are frightening. By 90s standards, it is terribly void of authentic chills that swept across drive-in movie screens of yesteryear, and concerns more on poor monster designs and lovely ladies (as usual). And yes, the beautiful Jacqueline Lovell looks great in a pair of hot pants and carrying an armed handgun. Pay more attention to her and you'll enjoy this. This is a "B" movie that simply spells b-a-d with a capital B! For a while, I thought the drive-in theater died along with the movies that played! Well, HIDEOUS! can go jump in the grave along with the rest of them, I guess.

Middle of the road Full Moon

[quridley · 6/10 · 3 June 2017]

"Hideous" is the most professional Full Moon film on the surface. Its beautifully shot, very well-cast and makes use of an epic and atmospheric locale. But unfortunately it features one of the driest, most predictable and uneventful scripts. Charles Band directs in his usual cheapo style with loads of longwinded, faux-intellectual dialogue, sloooooow scenes where nothing happens and loads of stale or over-the-top acting. The incredible production value of this film should've been given to a Puppet Master film. Puppet Master 3 shows what a good budget can do for a Full Moon movie, but that film also succeeded because had Band his hands off artistically.

This is a decent watch if you want to see great low-budget cinematography or a 1940s style "old dark house" story redone in the 1990s. But its not entertaining enough or weird enough for the average audience.

oy vey!!!

[Knapster · 1/10 · 28 August 1999]

Ew, that all i can say about this film, the begining was horrible, three men working in a sewage treatment plan retrive some sort, of meat packet that turns out to be a SMART FETUS! A SMART FETUS, that can READ, and control other fetuses with mind control!

Now I LOVE A GOOD B-movie, but this, this "film" can hardly be called a b-movie has SOME good points. During the frist 15 minutes of this movie, i made the following gestures "Stabbing myself in the neck, sticking my thumbs into my eye sockets in attempts to STOP THIS HORROR, and finally vomiting.

To jump back on subject, this movie over uses huge words, no one in their right mind would use, in an everyday conversation. Further more, when the "villain" steals Dr. Vorca's "goober" "freak" "fetus freak-thing" the thief, is a woman wearing an ape mask, walking around TOPLESS!!!!!!!! in the middle of winter. Now i am not the one to ask a topless woman WHY she is topless, but just why IS SHE TOPLESS IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER!

The prop signs in this film look like they have been stolen from a little child's fun house, "Danger Quick-Sand" written in the classical black paint with paint running down off of the words. Oh yes, and who can for get Dr. Vorca's own private road, complete with sign, huge letters that spell out PRIVATE and smaller letters spelling out private. Now instead of this sign on a regulation state sign, it is just a piece of drywall, painted, and stapled to two 2X4's hammered into the ground!

And the sound effects, WHAT ARE WE TO THINK THIS IS BOZO'S FUN FAIR! The slide wistle! OH THE SLIDE WISTLE! I WANTED TO BREAK THE THING! The stereotypical dumb blonde respeptionist at "Biological Medical Specimens" was enough for me, BUT NO, THEY PUT THE "BAD" FREAK COLECTOR IN A FREAKING CASTLE! WITH AN EASTERN EUROPEAN ACCENT, this is SO cliche, why not give Dr. Vorca an Afro!

Now then on to the puppets for the monsters, they were actually the BEST THING IN THIS FILM! NO JOKE! the most original idea in the whole production!

Awful Full Moon cheese that still satisfies.

[floatation man · 8/10 · 4 March 2003]

Here is the thing. You have to enjoy cheesy horror movies. To be delighted by the bizarre also helps. Hideous! is a weird movie involving collectable biological oddities preserved (mostly) in formaldehyde, a girl band in a cage rocking out, and a mutant born of noxious waste hell-bent on getting revenge or eating people or something. A quirky movie that entertained me to no end just by it's amusing oddness. The topless bandit didn't hurt either. If you like Full Moon Pictures, you will probably like this one. If the Puppet Master or Subspecies movies didn't do anything for you, then you should probably skip it. But, if you are ready to take a leap of faith and/or have a backup video at the ready, get a copy and set back on the couch for a bizarre evening.

Weird

[Ian_Maitland · 6/10 · 26 August 2021]

Solidly weird. But still not super great. Loved the concept.

Bad movie

[stefanozucchelli · 4/10 · 17 July 2022]

One of the worst movie made in '90.

A weird plot, a series of absurd characters too stupid or too amoral to be realistic.

The freaks are more complex of the human and more smart too.

There is almost nothing that can be saved from it.

Hideous! Yes, it is!!

[BHorrorWriter · 21 June 2001]

Laughable, dull, overly dramatic script. Flat, one dimensional characters. The most unrealistic dialogue. People don't really talk this...imbecile! Elvina--I know she is supposed to be a dim witted blonde, but she is bad actress and cannot even act stupid. The Castle looked very good, but it is just a prop, at least the outside. Why this needed to be filmed in Romania, I will never know. The best part about this movie was putting a very attractive woman in a gorilla mask, and having her walk around in the snow topless in booty shorts w/ a gun--That is classic.

3 out of 10

Silly

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 17 March 2019]

HIDEOUS! is another silly B-flick from Charles Band's Full Moon Entertainment, shot in Romania with a no-name cast (including the black guy from TOTAL RECALL, you'll remember him "I got five kids to feed!"). The story is about weirdos collecting biological "freak" specimens which are pickled but eventually come to life and wreak havoc, so yet another miniature rampage-style effort. After a long-winded set-up, all of the characters are trapped in a room with the little horrors trying to get them. It's bad taste for sure, but that's neutered somewhat by the awful special effects, which are barely glimpsed for a reason. Expect oodles of nudity to make up for the lack of horror.

More monsters less people

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 23 August 2021]

A Full Moon shot in Romania movie directed by Charles Band himself, this one is all about a fleshy speciman that washes up in a water treatment plant that everyone wants for themselves. There's a scene with a woman in a bikini and an ape mask stealings aid specimen by gunpoint, so there's definitely a few memorable moments, right?

There ends up being four different specimens. One has a little body and an enlarged deformed head with two pairs of eyes and two mouths, plus tentacles. There's also a blob with a face, a hairless ape that likes breastfeeding - another memorable moment - and a skeleton with porcupine-like spines.

That said, this is the kind of Full Moon movie that really leaves me cold. It makes time stand still and you keep looking at how much time is left, the only joy being the moments when the little guys are on the screen. More goopy fetus babies! Less human beings talking in rooms!

Hideous, very hideous

[gothicgoblin1334 · 3/10 · 1 June 2006]

OK, I tried to like this movie, I tried because I heard it was pretty good from my friends (unfortuantley they all live in a mental asylum) so I decided to watch and not make fun of it. Boy, was that a f-ckin' mistake. This film is loaded with nudity, random acts of stupidity and the comedy...well, the less said the better. I can't really stand much of this film, though, sorry. I don't really think it will do much for you as it did for me. Of course that's only my opinion but you know, what do you expect from a movie with hooey like naked Gorilla women hiding their faces. Anyway, this film is bullsh0t and I can't really recommend it to anyone unless they live in a mental instition, like my dear good friends. Yes, I have problems.

Nicer than expected

[gianmarcoronconi · 6/10 · 19 November 2023]

This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

At the basis of this film there is clearly a great desire to make a light comedy with hideous out-of-this-world creatures that create quite a bit of disgust, but in any case it is a comedy and therefore makes you laugh in many parts, especially due to the absolute absurdity of the majority of the scenes which are exaggerated on purpose to generate hilarity in the viewer. So as a horror it is completely to be thrown away but as a comedy it is really cute and entertaining and therefore in my opinion it is a bit underrated, that is, its rating is too low because even if the film is not a masterpiece it still deserves something just to be entertained and funny .

title says it all

[jeff-90 · 1/10 · 16 September 1998]

I love a good B horror movie. But there is nothing worse than a BAD B horror movie. This is truly awful and not worth any more time writing this review, let alone your time watching it. The people who gave this a 10 are obviously vertically dyslectic and meant to give it a 1.

By golly it is hideous.

[Aaron1375 · 1/10 · 23 September 2002]

This movie sucked. The only redeeming quality is the fact that it is extremely short. Though still not short enough. It actually started promisingly with an opening scene of sewage workers sifting through sludge finding something weird, but after that five minutes it is the typical full moon movie, little creatures, dumb human characters and an emphasis on comedy rather than horror. The dumb story revolves around this two guys who collect medical oddities, the latest one comes to life and brings other things to life, we are never told how or why, and frankly we don't care anyway. My advice skip this at all cost!

Deformed fetuses back from the dead

[Disembodied Brain · 8/10 · 8 March 2000]

When sewage workers serendipitously discover a discarded and deformed fetus, several collectors of medical oddities vie for possession of it. Subsequently, the fetus, along with others in a collection, come back to life and begin wreaking havoc. The plot offers an interesting premise, as medical oddities are an exotic source of fascination, as well as a dark biological aesthetic which lends itself well to the horror genre, while providing an antidote to the sterile and plastic commercial culture which permeates the mainstream media.

While the viewer may be inclined to perceive the reanimated fetuses as the antagonists of the film, the real antagonists are the collectors - Elvina, Napoleon Lazar, and Dr. Lorca. They can be characterized as such because (1) they seek to obtain the deformed fetuses for their own personal collections, thus gratifying their own egos, whereas such preternatural specimens should be studied by science, or if such specimens are to be put on display, it should be a public exhibition in order to stimulate the intellectual curiosity of the novelty-starved masses. Preferably, they should be in a museum, ideally one that specializes in medical oddities, such as the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. (2) They are antagonists because they continue their pursuit of the fetuses even after they discover that the specimens are not only alive, but sentient. Therefore, they would exploit the fetuses for their own gain, despite the fact the fetuses express (in the form of writing notes!) their preference to be left alone. This can be symbolic of how businesspeople view the consumer as a commodity - a means of improving one's "bottom line" - rather than as beings with their own desires. The deformed fetuses, therefore, are not antagonists but antiheroes. They only cause trouble once their desire has been disregarded. This film contains some creatively sexy scenes. Regarding sexual content, mainstream films tend to offer little more than mundane male-female sexual intercourse. B-movies often deliver a refreshing selection of uncommon/unnatural sexual scenes, serving to satisfy one's desire for an alternative to routine and unimaginative sexuality. "Hideous!" is no exception, and in fact, the sexual scenes make for some of the most appealing content of this film.

Also seen the German version.....

[nofunatall · 1/10 · 24 June 2001]

....but it´s no better. German title is "In Vitro - Attack of the Mutants ".

1) I guess the cover art is a fake, because you think, this movie has lots of splatter and gore effects, when you see it. I was thinking the same, and so I grabbed out the box from the rack..... 2) OK, first step done. I turned around the box and read through the storyline. A small outtake: " ....a horrifying bunch of mutants, who only wants to take one thing: revenge. " (Only translated from the German text on the box). 3) The next impudence: once again, the cover. I didn´t know Mr. Band before, but the banner on the box, makes it very easy to get a first impression. BANNER: A movie from Charles Band, the King of Fantastic Movies 4) After this step, I was sure to buy it, for only (about) $19,99.

So Mister Ziggerhofer, I thought, find some VHSMachine ´n stuff, insert the movie, lay back and enjoy. First 10 min: Ok found some fetus in the sewers.... After 30 min: It´s time that something happens, no blood, no gore , no splatter, in the first half hour.

At that point, my stomach gave me THE feeling. I was very amused of Lorca´s assistant, but that was all. No more suprising, pleeeeeeezzzze.

At last: I recommend this movie, for everybody, because it has all implements a FANTASTIC movie needs: Thrill, Blood, good actors, pretty girls (except Ms. King Kong), thrilling soundtrack..... and much more.

I think Mr. Band has made himself the KING, because of his outstanding ideas and wonderful directing.

But i like really bad movies, not such surprising chartbreakers.

1 out of 10 Stars

Greetings ZIG

Only worth it to see Jacqueline Lovell topless

[Vagary · 2/10 · 18 April 1999]

There is only one reason to watch this movie and that's to see the lovely Jacqueline Lovell in that black vest (and not much more). You'd be better off watching Showtime after dark. Fuhgeddaboutid!

Hideous???

[soggycow · 2/10 · 20 August 1999]

"Hideous!"? I think that this movie should have been called "Ridiculous" instead. I often see bad movies, but not this bad.

The plot of the movie is as follows: A man who fishes pieces of garbage out of sewage for a living(?) fishes out a biological organism of some sort. He sells it to a woman who makes money selling these organisms, and the woman in turn sells it to some other guy. In the process of taking this organism home, this guy is robbed by a topless woman who works for his rival. I feel no need to describe this movie any further because the reader of this review should know by now that this movie isn't worth his\her time.

This movie suffers from horrible acting, a bad script, horrendous direction, and annoying characters, just to name a few things. The only good quality of this movie is the effects of the the monsters.

Try to avoid this one. My rating: 2 out of 10