Freaks (1932)

I remember renting “Freaks” back in the sixth grade with a friend and thinking “what the hell are we watching” all the way through it. It had that weird charm that comes with being a really old movie (1932), with actors who probably spent most of their careers on stage or in silent film so that the gestures were still over exaggerated even though they no longer had to over compensate for the lack of sound. So this, plus the fact that director Tod Browning employed real freaks in the movie, gave it a somewhat, how do you say, “offbeat” quality to say the least.

A bitch of a trapeze artist along with an asshole of a strongman conspire to rob a circus midget of his fortune. The little guy is smitten with the normal size woman even though he is engaged to another “little person” and seemingly ignores the fact that he is made fun of at every turn by his new long legged flame. It seems the little guy is actually quite wealthy (so why is he working as a “circus freak”?), as our conspiring trapeze artist plans to marry and off the little dude, thus raking in all of the money as the “grieving widow”. She and the audience however, soon discover that circus freaks stick together, and definitely don’t take to kindly to “normal” folk who try to murder their own kind.

Banned for over thirty years in Britain and rarely seen elsewhere, “Freaks” is still a very hard film to watch. The real life freaks used in the movie are essentially exploited for their various oddities, making the viewer feel somewhat guilty while watching the proceedings. The movie does attempt to portray them as normal individuals with emotions like the rest of us, but that underlying vibe of “look at the freak!” still permeates, rather uncomfortably mind you, throughout the film. The now classic “Wedding Feast” scene is definitely a favorite among cult film aficionados what with the “gooble gobble” and the “one of us, one of us”. Those who have seen the movie know what I’m talking about, and you gotta admit it is a fairly catchy little tune, no? Watch to, for the end scene as the freaks are closing in on their prey...the image of one of the “pinheads”, with knife in hand while crawling through the mud and rain is fairly disturbing to say the least. Recommended viewing if you ever come across a copy, as it is a fairly rare film.