Classic Horror: The Freaks

Halloween is coming and I’d like to feature one or two movies per week this month of must see horror classics. I have a lot I love, but certain ones stand out in the crowd, and in my opinion you must see them. Today’s horror flicks are full of awful violence, f-bombs, and sex, but no substance whatsoever. There are a few exceptions of course. Classic horror used sound, lighting and music to scare their audiences to death. And that is all it took, and it worked. We may look at these movies and chuckle, but some still scare people today and that is what I want to write about this month.  So on that note….

My pick for today is Ted Browning’s, Freaks (1932). Many people don’t consider this film a horror film per say, but others do. I think the film is horrifying in terms of the mood and setting. Freaks is a little disturbing and I think that Hollywood would not get away with a movie like this today. It wouldn’t be politically correct. The movie is about “Circus Freaks.” All the “Circus Freaks” live by a code, which one of their own, a trapeze artist (Olga Baclanova) violates when she plots to kill her midget husband (Harry Earles).

It is terrifying to look at characters like pinheads, dwarfs, midgets, human worm, and a bird girl. All kinds of human oddities send chills down your spine. But you also can’t help feeling sad for them. The movie is also about the human desire for love, and the battle to attain it. The movie did not do well in the box office because the critics trashed it. Freaks was banned in many cities, and taken out of circulation for thirty years. It did do great in Europe with the “hip generation.” The movie made a comeback in the 60′s in the US, in colleges and the late movie circuit–it was a hit. The 80′s rolled around and video rentals and sales made Freaks the greatest comeback movie in Hollywood history.

Freaks is a classic, but I don’t know that I’d call it a masterpiece. The script is a little cheesy, but so were many movies of the early 30′s. Talkies were new–they had not worked out all the kinks yet. The actors had little or no acting experience. You can almost see them reading their lines. Yet, the plot and the people are fascinating. In one scene, before the movie gets really creepy, there is a wedding. It is one scene that stands out. The freaks are celebrating Han’s marriage to the trapeze artist. Everyone is singing, laughing, and dancing. The bird girl does a shimmy on the table. One of the freaks starts a spooky jingle that goes like this, “one of us…” it’s a song which ushers in outsiders in the family of freaks. They are singing it to the bride, but it  repulses her—she’ll never be one of them. So she thinks… Watch the clip of Freaks below, and get freaked out for sure.