Freaks (1932) Review

CLAYTON'S CREEPY CINEMA!

WEEK 1: FREAKS AND FIENDS 

Freaks (1932)

Kicking off Freaks and Fiends week is Freaks, a classic and unconventional horror film that is still as scary and unsettling today as it was in the early thirties.

The film starts out at a circus sideshow with a horrific attraction on display, but it isn’t shown on camera (yet). The man working there tells the tale of how this abomination was once normal, but became mutilated and deranged. The plot revolves around a group of circus freaks who work and live together. Cleopatra, a trapeze artist, seduces a short man named Hans, who has inherited a fortune. The conniving Cleopatra plans to take Hans’ inheritance and run off with Hercules, a strong man. Of course Hans and his fellow circus freaks are unaware of this scheme. The freaks accept Cleopatra as one of their own, even though she isn’t a ‘freak’, for she has no physical deformities or mutations to speak of. But that all changes when Cleopatra’s plan comes to light and it is discovered that she has been poisoning the ailing Hans. The freaks converge and move in on her during a rain storm. It’s a truly terrifying scene, as the freaks wield weapons and close in, including a man with no arms and no legs wriggling through the mud with a knife between his teeth. In the end, it is revealed that what scared the people at the side show in the film’s opening was Cleopatra, who now has melted hands to resemble duck feet and a permanently tarred and feathered torso, making her a “human duck”. It’s incredibly unsettling, but to lighten the mood, it’s shown that Hans is living a luxury life as a millionaire.

What sets Freaks apart from other horror films is that director Tod Browning used real circus freaks as

opposed to makeup effects. Though it increases the disturbance level and makes the film look as authentic as possible, it also stirred controversy back in the day, and continues to for obvious reasons. The scariest looking freaks of all have to be Pinhead Pip and Pinhead Zip. To describe them is like trying to describe a nightmare. I know it’s awful to say, but honestly, they are harder to look at than some of the best visual effects ever created. The scene where the freaks are sitting around the dinner table at Hans and Cleopatra’s wedding is the most memorable and one of the most twisted. The freaks rhythmically pound their forks and knives on the table and chant: “Gooble-gobble, gooble gobble. We accept her. One of us. One of us.” It’s catchy and creepy all at once.

I was surprised by how well this film has aged. Despite having been made over eighty years ago, it’s well paced and moves at a brisk speed. The freaks aren’t immediately portrayed as villains or monsters, and you can get behind them as characters before they turn on Cleopatra, which makes it all the more emotional and unsettling. It does drag in a couple scenes, but it isn’t a very long film and the climax is still chilling on repeated viewings. I would say give this classic a watch. It’s original, unique, and pretty damn disturbing.