Freaks (1932)

John Chard

9.0

Apr 26, 2014

This is for the misfits the freaks and the runts. Tod Browning's Freaks is as infamous today as it was back in the 30s when it shook film watchers to the core. Of course time has diluted some of its impact, you can imagine that a modern day horror fan drooling over torture porn et al being completely bemused by the reputation afforded Freaks. Yet it still remains a unique and nightmarish piece of film making, the sort of picture that if someone like David Lynch had made it in the modern era it would be heralded as a masterpiece of daring and genius like artistry. Browning pulls us the vi…

If I have to be honest, I'd say that I have uncertain opinions concerning this film on the whole. On the one hand, I can't say that I didn't enjoy 'Freaks', mainly because of its nice display of bizarre cast members. On the other hand, I can't help feeling slightly at fault, considering that these were real people who probably suffered a lot in their lives because of their malformations, something they obviously couldn't help. Here's a movie that basically became popular precisely because it's about real life 'freaks' (?) and here's the audience that somehow takes pleasure from a film that con…