We’re finally back in the United States. The 30s was a hotbed of horror, in particular with the Universal Monsters making their individual debuts. The studio dominated the decade with it’s release of Dracula and Frankenstein among many others. You had Warner Bros. experiment with their horror by incorporating color before the advent of Technicolor. While all have them have their respective place in the history of the horror genre, Freaks is one of the most unique films that I’ve seen in that time.
1. Circus Life
For a good while doing this, I wanted to watch Freaks. As always, I’ve had the tough choice of leaving it out in my retrospective or feel that I was ready to talk about it. I have heard about it from Youtuber James Rolfe as he does his annual look into Horror with his movie reviews. Not saying I’m ripping him off, but he’s an inspiration. Anyways, it seemed like I was seeing and hearing references to the movie and just thought that it was just original for the sake of it. As always, it’s never the case.
Based on the short story titled “Spurs”, Freaks is mostly about the circus sideshow performers that we follow. Specifically, a trapeze artist named Cleopatra who “fawns” over the dwarf performer named Hans. She learns that he has inherited a large sum of wealth, she and another performer named Hercules decide to poison him to- you know basically know where it’s all going. So yeah, this is practically different from any horror film type from the time.
Horror is a loose word since there’s no killer or anything scary per say since the whole film projects actual people with mental and physical disabilities on the screen. All of it is unique since many people would assume that there’s a killer on the loose in the circus or death defying trick that has to be done. There’s none of that, I think the appropriate word for it is macabre. Just looking at the supporting cast and how all of them look sells what the movie is going for.
For one thing, it’s not exploitive to the handicapped. None of the sideshow performers exhibit any sense of danger to anybody but go about their days as being part of the circus. And I give the filmmakers that where they’re not treated any differently but more so that they are just performers to a big show. In a way, it reminds me like a documentary or a day in the life since we see that some of the sideshow people get into relationships and even deliver a baby.
It’s only human nature to be afraid of what’s different than us and be curious enough to wonder how does one person survive being different. And I don’t blame anyone for being afraid of how some of these people looked like. In fact, as shooting was commenced, some people for MGM were disturbed by how the cast looked. To the point where a majority of them were relegated to a tent instead of being on a sound stage.
2. Duality of Man
Aside from the selling point of seeing people who have physical deformities, I think the central story is interesting. As I mentioned earlier, Cleopatra the trapeze artist tries to poison one of the dwarves who has a vast inheritance. We spend time with Hans as he tries to act normal despite being vertically challenged. It’s a recurring motif in the whole film where we see the normal beautiful people juxtaposed with the differently abled. Perhaps it’s meant to be an allusion for class status.
To me, it feels like a tragedy for Hans since he feels that he can be normal. Even though, he was engaged to another fellow dwarf. All of it comes to an intersection when Cleopatra and Hans have a dinner after the wedding. We see that Hans’ colleagues welcome Cleo into their lives and start their famous chant. Cleo in a drunken state laughs and mocks Hans at his expense. It’s sad when we see Hans be denigrated to being lesser than being a man.
I think the best part of the film is when the sideshow crew get their revenge. And unfortunately, this is the part where we don’t see how the freaks get back at Cleo and Hercules. For her, it’s teased in the beginning until the end where we see the result. It’s hilarious but gruesome what the sideshow did to her. One of the lost scenes is what happened to Hercules, to put it simply they castrate him. In a way, despite being different what they did in retaliation is human. It’s the only equalizer by showing how they can be cruel as the normal people.
3. Legacy
It’s a shame for as unconventional and groundbreaking as the film was in concept, that it was immediately pulled during its release. Test audiences were reported to be running away from the theater and a disputed account of a woman suffering from a miscarriage. I think it’s one of the earlier examples of a film being pulled and having it be chopped up in runtime. No film should be trimmed in any, but the one I watched is the only surviving print that is accessible through The Criterion Collection.
As I said earlier, I was indirectly watching some things that were referenced from the film. The first to come to mind was in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. There was a dwarf that was used, and when Jordan Belfort’s friends were chanting the same chant that appeared in Freaks. Lastly, the whole film was the inspiration to one of the seasons in FX’s American Horror Story. I haven’t watched it but the specific season was aptly titled "Freak Show".
4. Overall
Freaks is one of the most progressive and macabre films to come out in the 1930s.
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