Movie Review - Freaks

Freaks takes place nearly entirely behind the scenes of a circus where the performers spend their lives when they aren't performing.  The story follows the infatuation of Hans with Cleopatra.  It's a basic love story except in this case, Hans is a midget who works as part of the freak show side of the circus while Cleopatra is a normal sized woman who rides the trapeze.  Hans will do anything to win the affection of Cleo, and is blinded by his love for her.  He can't see that he is being used and in the process becoming the laughingstock of the normal circus performers.  His friends from the freak show try to help him to no avail.  When Cleo finds out that Hans has money, she decides to get him to marry her and then plans to kill him.

What Cleo does not know is there is a code among the freaks.  "Offend one and you offend them all."

Originally intended as a horror movie, today Freaks is seen more as a soap opera with an unhappy ending.  As I mentioned, the story is simple, a gold digger marries for money.  What made this movie memorable is the casting and the focus on the freaks.  There are all kinds presented in the film.  Beyond the midgets, there is the living skeleton, Siamese twins, the bearded lady, the "pinheads" who are actually people with microcephaly, a pair of women with no arms, a man with only a torso and finally a man with no arms or legs.  Most of these performers were members of real circus freak shows, selected from a larger group of performers to appear in the film.

This caused quite a stir as many at the time considered this exploitation.  However, it seems the performers were happy for the work.  And it appears to me that they are presented in the film in a mostly positive light.  In fact, they are more accepting and caring than most of the "normal" people in the film.  This is shown most vividly in the wedding celebration scene where the freaks all accept Cleo as one of them, only to be spurned.  The film highlights that the "freaks" are really just normal people who happen to have some form of deformity or disability.  Rather progressive for 1932.

The film is short at just about an hour long, but the DVD has some extra features that aren't to be missed.  There is a prologue that states:

"Never again will such a story be filmed, as modern science and teratology is rapidly eliminating such blunders of nature from the world."

I think they were overly optimistic about the ability of science to eliminate birth defects.

In addition, there is a special feature that is over an hour long that highlights the real lives of the freaks, focusing on how they came to be part of the film and how their lives played out.  It's almost more fascinating than the film, providing that voyeuristic view into the lives of individuals that our society seems to love right now, considering all the reality TV shows that are popular.

The film shows its age in the production, acting and some of the scene edits.  It's definitely a film from the early days of cinema, but what makes it memorable are the characters. It's a film that will stick with you and you'll wonder how any mainstream studio could have had the guts to produce it.