Side Sho DVD Review

When a suburban family traveling through Florida, while on vacation, decides to take the scenic route in an effort to indulge the father’s twisted interest in side show attractions, they stumble across more than they bargain for. While the rest of the family looks at the poisonous snake exhibit, the father is taken on an extreme freak show of aborted fetuses and oddities like newborn, sharp-toothed Siamese twins who, upon birth, began trying to eat the other.

What seems like a rundown old freak show ala traveling road shows and curiosity shows of yester year, quickly turns into a great deal more. After becoming alarmed by the severity of the additional show, the father quickly rounds up the family and tears out of the compound. Unfortunately, however, they soon discover that their gas has been siphoned, and the family minivan comes to a halt in the middle of nowhere.

The family takes refuge in the cabins of an old fishing camp, run by a one eyed behemoth, but in the middle of the night the women are all abducted by a collection of backwoods inbred freaks, including one they call “the dog,” and one who is so ugly he has to wear a potato sack over his head. Soon it is revealed that the collection of inbred, deformed freaks intend on using the women to breed since according to one of the matriarchs of the collective the family tree does not have any branches on it.

There is absolutely little to no original though in the creation of Side Sho. The basic plot is a amalgamation of several, much better crafted horror films. The most notable similarity is that of The Hills Have Eyes. The two plots are almost identical, less a few of the finer points, up to and including the use of an “inside man” who directs the family toward danger when they stop for gasoline.

The film employs every obnoxious and cliché horror film tradition known to the genre, including the screaming girls who cannot seem to muster enough strength to complete to most basal of human instincts, self preservation. It also includes the hackneyed injured victim who cannot keep up with the rest of the group and the blood-spattered girl running through the woods after freaking out.

The quality of filming is exceptionally low as well. The video aliases or ghosts throughout the entire film, while most of the lighting set ups seem unmotivated, including a scene where enormous lights illuminate the other side of a hill, covered with smoke, while a bad guy slowly walks toward the group. Side Sho is just bad filmmaking, there is even an evident lapse in continuity when from one scene to another, one of the key players somehow changes clothes.

The DVD release of this straight to video film includes the feature, presented in widescreen and with a 5.1 stereo surround soundtrack. The special features include a commentary with director Michael D’Anna and actor John David Hart, a trailer gallery and a blooper reel. The DVD also includes a featurette titled The Sho That Never Ends: The Marking of Side Sho.