Review of Freaks (1932) by Tim H — 04 Apr 2008

This is a movie that I was never planning on watching. Just the concept seemed exploitative. Well, I guess I'm wrong...kind of.

Let's talk about the hour runtime. I might be a big fan of the hour run-time from here on out. Yeah, it's barely long enough to be considered a movie, but I'm very okay with that, especially with content that can be seen in Tod Browning's Freaks. But the part that puzzled me most was the "horror" label that the mighty 501 referred to it as.

The movie constantly reaffirms that these "freaks" are people with real emotions and hate to be laughed at and tormented. I acutallly really liked that aspect. I personally thought this movie was going to be a documentary style movie showing people with deformities on display, very much like a circus sideshow. Nevermind that, because I was pleased to see a running narrative with the lifestyle of the circus exposed to a rich family community. That's pretty cool. But then where does the horror come in?

The last ten minutes of the movie maybe the most terrifying thing I have seen in a long time. 1932? Seriously? People would have been screaming their heads off. This is the guy who filmed Dracula for Universal. That movie wasn't scary at all. This, though? Sideshow freaks crawing through mud in the rain and lightening, chasing down an evil woman to turn her into one of them? Last thing I was honestly expecting.

It actually is a nice little tail. While there is some problems understanding some of the characters due to their voice deformities, it's a pretty solid little movie. I did find it interesting that the movie decided that it needed to have a non-freak romance going on with two honorable characters while paralleling their lives to two evil normal people. Perhaps an audience wouldn't like the idea that all normally functioning people are considered evil so they make these freak-friendly normal people to contrast them. I feel bad even saying normal people, but I don't know what the terminology is. Either way, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I don't know if I'd watch it again on my own, but now I know what all the hype is about and that it is not misplaced.