Review of Freaks (1932) by Kevin M — 28 Oct 2009

"Freaks" does more in its scant 64 minutes than the subsequent 75 years of horror films have in their cumulative entirety. Its lurid, now antiquated carnivalesque milieu captures the dying breath of an entire lifestyle. A circus, where the beautiful and strong live amongst deformed castaways, is a self-contained society with rigid, unwritten laws protecting the less fortunate. There's no doubt that "Freaks" is uncomfortably exploitative at times; we've got a procession of actual dwarfs, pituitary cases, pinheads, bearded ladies, a dude without legs, and a very crazy colored fellow without any limbs at all, who thrashes about like a 50 pound jumping bean.

Yet, in a defiant counterpoint to the freak-show atmosphere, the story itself is a cry for sanity amidst overwhelming exploitation. Taking the unassuming form of a love triangle, our hapless German dwarf protagonist finds himself ensnared in a rather exotic honey pot, while his feminine counterpart looks on. Soon we learn the temptress' true intentions and the whole sordid affair climaxes with a grand banquet of REVENGE, served up ice cold in special "gooble gobble" goblets, by a waiter without arms.

"The Wedding Feast.", as the creepy title card announces, could be taken out of the film entirely and stand alone as a jaw-dropping 20 minute short. Without the preceding three reels' worth of buildup, however, we couldn't ever empathize with the freaks as they devise their elaborate poetic justice. We'd be lesser beings if we couldn't learn to love the adorable siamese twins or the little girls with the faces of old ladies. Tod Browning succeeds at his lofty goal, never resorting to out-and-out "horror" tactics to shock the audience. He also throws in a standard "normal" love story as audience concession; MGM would have kiboshed the project were it not for its lone "commercial" element, surely. There are many reasons why this film could never be made today, most involving labor laws and good taste.

Though its length would prevent it from being released as a full-length feature in today's market, "Freaks" is a triumph on every level. It gets you to care about its title characters much in the same way Lynch's "Elephant Man" got us to see under John Merrick's hideous exterior. Then your sympathies are inverted, crucified, and run through the mud during a rainstorm. Required Halloween viewing.