#freaks1932

Evan's Impressions:  To call Freaks a horror movie brings up a long running discussion about this film. Does the film exploit or humanize the side show performers in the film? On the one hand, they are called freaks, they are shown off as sideshow performers to be gawked at and they provide the horror in the movie. But on the other hand, the film is a noble tale of friends protecting friends and many of characters are given a chance to show what they are really capable of, such as the man with no arms and legs lighting and smoking a cigarette, or seeing the marriage of two conjoined twins to different men being portrayed as a normal event. I have always been on the fence with this discussion because I think it is evident that the director purposely showed the humanity of these people but the reason most people (including myself) will seek out this film and watch it to see a group of real sideshow performers exploited on film. But at the end of the day, whatever side you pick and however you see the intent of this move, I think we can all agree that there is no other movie like it.

Alyssa's Impressions: Our second film by director Tod Browning, and an amazing film.  There is some argument that Freaks isn't a horror film, and by today's standards it wouldn't be, but for the time it was incredibly risky, massively bombed, was banned around the world (for 30 years in Britain) and pretty much ruined Tod Browning's directing career.  Although the studio green-lit Freaks to cash in on the popularity and success of horror films (like Browning's Dracula the year before), Freaks ended up being an endearing and heartbreaking look at the treatment of human anomalies in traveling circus sideshows.  Those who want to argue the horror classification need only watch the climax of the film, with the "freaks" crawling with knives through the mud hell-bent on revenge.  In some ways Freaks is partly a tragic drama, and in others ways a documentary; Browning scoured America to find the perfect cast of real "sideshow freaks".  Some have called this film exploitative, and while this definitely holds water, Browning makes a very compassionate presentation and the story shows the "freaks" as real people just like everyone else, just mistreated and misunderstood, while the "normal" circus performers who are ignorant or outright malicious, paralleling those who are disformed physically and those with a disformed heart or soul.  It's not perfect, and some of it clearly has not aged with time, however the basic story of the abused sideshow members taking charge of their lives, protecting their own and punishing their abusers still stands out today.  A must see for any film aficionado.