Movie Review: "Freaks"

Freaks was made in 1932 and tells the story of a group of carnival sideshow performers.

This movie was surprising. I think I went into it expecting some physical abnormality exploitation film. Stephen King's discussion on this movie in his book "Danse Macabre" led me to believe this. But it wasn't anything like that. It wasn't a monster movie. It was a love story. Frieda and Hans are carnival midgets. She loves him and he loves her. But he is also in love with Cleopatra (a 'big' person). Cleopatra could care less about Hans; she exploits him for her own gain, using his love for her own benefit while she herself is involved with Hercules (another 'big' person).

Hans is independently wealthy and showers Cleopatra with gifts. Frieda tries to talk to Hans about what Cleopatra is doing to him, but he is blinded by his affection for the big woman. Cleopatra finds out about Hans's wealth and agrees to marry him in order to get to his money. All the while, she is in cahoots with Hercules and eventually plans kill Hans.

The monsters in the movie are not those with severe physical deformities (the guy with no waist or legs, the human torso, conjoined twins, etc...). The monsters are carnival strongman Hercules and carnival beauty Cleopatra who selfishly exploit Hans' emotions and try to kill him.

In the end, Cleopatra and Hercules get what was coming to them. Both are punished under the 'code of the freaks.' For "If you offend one of them, you have offended them all" as a carnival barker explains. The other performers find out about Hercules's and Cleopatra's plans and exact some definitive revenge. Hercules is attacked and wounded and is last seen with eight or so armed midgets, torsos and others slowly advancing on him in the pouring rain. Cleopatra is attacked off-screen and is reduced to a sideshow attraction herself.

While being a serious movie, there is some humor. There's the stuttering clown married to a conjoined twin -- he loves his wife, but can't stand her sister and doesn't want her hanging around his wife. Another man wins the heart of the other sister and the two men talk to each other saying, "We hope you two can come visit us sometime," despite the reality that the four of them will never be separate. And there's the amorous glance the carnival's half man / half woman gives Hercules to which another carnival worker says something like, "I think she likes you, but he can't stand you."

Freaks is billed as a horror movie and like The Phantom of the Opera movie in 1925, it terrified its original theatergoers. But Freaks is more than just some scary movie. It's a story of love, family, and the lengths family will take to protect their own.