Freaks (1932)

Freaks is a 1932 pre-code psychological horror/suspense/thriller live-action movie. It was directed by Tod Browning, written by Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon, edited by Basil Wrangell, filmed by Merritt B. Gerstad, produced by Tod Browning, Harry Rapf, Irving Thalberg, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) With the film being released partially as a response Universal Studio's success with the horror genre, it's possibly the most disturbing fiction feature ever released at the time, even today it still manages to be haunting.
 * 2) Despite there being a number of similarities between this film and 1930 version of The Unholy Three (such as the opening scene of Freaks where the setting, lighting, camera placement and editing are all similar to the latter film's opening), the latter film was a minor tale of a criminal gang with comedy. whereas this film is very different.
 * 3) Excellent special effects.
 * 4) Great casting, especially since the director, Tod Browning, chose to cast real-life deformed people and carnival performers, which only added to the authenticity of this disturbing movie. Although the deformed actors were well-known among the industry, some were even veterans. (Keep in mind that with advances in medicine, most of the conditions in the film can be corrected today, so it's unlikely people would encounter individuals like these anymore.)
 * 5) Powerful and emotional acting with Olga Baclanova as the cruelly manipulative trapeze artist and Harry Earles as the freak she torments, and a number of the other "freaks"
 * 6) A major accomplishment is that characters develop personalities and are more than just simply curiosities to be awed at.
 * 7) The film's a very difficult watch as it tells a disturbing, yet realistic story of what people who are different have to go through with explotiation, theft, and  Asks the question of what it really means to be normal. providing the viewers with untraditional moral sympathy.
 * 8) Like most author movies from this era, the lack of music only helps to enhance the creepy mood.
 * 9) The best scene in the film is the last one, when the "freaks" are chasing the "normal people" who mistreated them through the carnival trying to kill them -- at night, during a thunderstorm, crawling through the mud with knives in their teeth. It's really creepy, and the only actual horror scene in the film, but he manages to put Frankenstein and Dracula.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The expoliation of deformed oddities wouldn't be viewed in a positive, innocent light like it was back when the film was released.
 * 2) Words like "midget" and "pinhead" would be seen as offensive today.
 * 3) Considering most of the actors weren't professionals, some of their performances can seem halting and amatuerish.

Reception
Freaks has a 94% critic rating and an 88% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 3.9/5 on Letterboxd, and a 7.9/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB).

Trivia
Freaks began principal photography in October 1931 and was completed in December. Following disastrous test screenings in January 1932 (one woman threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage), the studio cut the picture down from its original 90-minute running time to just over an hour. Much of the sequence of the freaks attacking Cleopatra as she lies under a tree was removed, as well as a gruesome sequence showing Hercules being castrated, a number of comedy sequences, and most of the film's original epilogue. A new prologue featuring a carnival barker was added, as was the new epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the tiny lovers. This shortened version — now only 64 minutes long — had its premiere at the Fox Criterion in Los Angeles on February 20, 1932. ↵

Video
oaI_TlurEu8