Freaks (1932)

 

Film: Freaks

Director: Tod Browning

Country: USA

Released: February 1932

Runtime: 64 minutes

Genre: Horror

Studio: MGM

Influenced: Buñuel, Cronenberg, Clive Barker, Tobe Hooper, Mary Harron, Kubrick, Martin Scorsese

Many see this film as a celebration of disability, while others view it as exploitative, but personally after watching the movie a couple of times and learning more about Tod Browning's intentions with Freaks, I'm firmly in the camp of seeing it as a work of compassion and daring. Browning put his successful career in Hollywood – he was especially noted for his 1931 version of Dracula – on the line to make this film and his reputation was ruined as a result.

Freaks was deemed in bad taste by Browning's MGM bosses and private audiences at the time, and the studio’s alternative happy ending turned the film into a huge flop. The film was reassessed after Browning’s death in 1962, notably by French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, and this led to its cult revival. Many critics have since seen Browning's sympathetic portrayal of "circus freaks" as the film's major strength; in today's more inclusive society, people perhaps are more willing to see themselves in the Freaks and, as a result, the film has gained greater acceptance.

For me, the film’s two most iconic scenes are the wedding feast, when the Freaks attempt to embrace the married couple ("one of us!") but then Cleopatra and Hercules’ wicked plan becomes apparent, and also of course the climactic ending of the two schemers being chased on a rainy night. The ending for both (Cleopatra turned into an ugly duckling and Hercules into a castrato singer) is truly horrific. MGM were outraged at the film and cut the film mercilessly, replacing the ending entirely.

Browning's real ending is truly one of the most terrifying film scenes I've ever watched. Here the argument of exploitation is strongest, in that throughout the film until that point we've grown to see the humanity of the Freaks, but in the closing scene their disability is used to amplify the otherworldly of being chased by them en masse on a rainy night. However, one of the hallmarks of any great film is that its images stay long in the memory of audiences and critics, and that's certainly the case for Freaks.