Freaks (1932) | 100 Movies Bucket List

 

This was one of the ones I was most looking forward to based on the premise alone. I thought it sounded so great and, if done well, had the potential to be genuinely scary. That being said, other than the written description, I knew nothing of the history of the movie.

I had mixed feelings about this film. I liked it for the most part, but it wasn't what I thought, or really wanted, it to be.

The collection of characters is so interesting, particularly because most (if not all) of the actors portraying people with conditions actually had these conditions in real life. Most of them appear to be professional sideshow and/or circus performers, which just adds to the authenticity of the characters, and the story itself.

The writing is great. As with the characters, everything feels completely authentic.

The pace of the story is odd - it takes a long time to set everything up, but because it's such a short movie, once the horrors begin, there's not a lot of time to really explore them. The first half of the movie is really just letting us get to know the characters, which is great, but maybe we needed more time for the actual plot beyond this.

It's really fascinating to research the film and see how controversial it was considered, mostly around the treatment of the disabled cast members. And while you can understand why that might be the case, to see the way the treatment of the film has changed, from being banned to being available to stream for free under 100 years later, says a lot about public attitudes and the way things have evolved.

It feels like it takes a really long time to actually reach the conclusion - and for that matter, to actually become a horror movie. Only in the last 4 minutes does anything vaguely 'horror' actually happen.

So overall, while I appreciate the film, and its place in history, I don't know that I'd say it should be considered classic horror.