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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
FREAKS (1932)
Freaks is unlike anything you've ever seen. It is at once mesmerizing and
revolting. At just over an hour, the film is a sideshow of physical deformity, and proves
that just when you think you've seen it all, there's a human skeleton or a bird lady
waiting in the wings to drop your jaw. The renowned Tod Browning (Dracula,
London After Midnight) made Freaks for a studio (MGM) that cut its length by a
third and then eventually banned it completely.
Freaks centers on the interaction within a traveling circus act. They come in all sizes, as
proven by the little people (and even further proven by the little people with deformed
heads). Beneath the surface, this is a movie about civil rights, how difference
transcends color and sex. But the characters flashing before our eyes are so
hypnotically mind-numbing, that one can't be blamed for missing this message. The
audience upon its initial release definitely missed this message, and as a result
Freaks gained notoriety as a classified exploitation film.
DVD Extras: Freaks: Sideshow Cinema runs the same length as the
actual film itself, and contains a revealing profile on almost all of the "freaks" as well as
an overview of the production. Narrating the documentary is author David J. Skal
(Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of the
Macabre), who also provides a stimulating commentary track. Also included is a
prologue proclaiming the characters’ helplessness as victims of discrimination.
Matching up to this is an epilogue that serves as one of the three alternate endings.
The other two are merely shorter substitute edits of the actual ending, as the studio
wanted desperately to alleviate the shock value for the audience. Micahel Belkewitch
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