Freaks Is An Early Example Of Humanistic Horror

The circus is basically a relic of bygone eras of family activities at this point and I'm not really all that wistful for the time when they were a prominent fixture of all-ages entertainment. As Patton Oswalt once noted in his stand-up, circuses inherently are creepy and have an extensive history of exploiting people and animals. For an example of pop culture representation of the former element, look no further than the 1932 Tod Browning directed feature Freaks, which is all about following the lives of a large number of physically handicapped individuals who are put on display by a traveling circus as members of their Freak Show exhibit.


Among these the members of this program is Hans (Harry Earles) and Frieda (Daisy Earles), two little people who are romantically involved with each other, but Hans has begun to develop feelings for the circuses acrobat, Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova). Hans is oblivious to the fact that Cleopatra is simply using Hans infatuations with her to provide amusement to the other non-Freak Show workers at the circus. Cleopatra is so devoted to using Hans as a tool for her own amusement that she even proposes they get married, though one knows that endlessly mocking people simply because they're different rarely ends well for the ones doing the mocking.

Freaks appear to be ground zero for a prominent strain of horror cinema that empathetically follows characters who society deems to be "monsters" simply because they differ in some manner (here, it's in their physical appearance) from the extremely narrow definition of what conventional society dubs "normal". The likes of Guillermo Del Toro would inhabit this realm of spooky filmmaking in decades to come and Browning's foray into this type of storytelling by exploring the various members of this circuses freak show exhibit as actual human beings demonstrates why it's such a popular avenue for horror movies to go down. 

The majority of the early scenes of Freaks are devoted to the various titular "freaks" engaging in dialogue-heavy scenes that flesh them out as human beings. Notice how the screenplay by Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon never cuts to scenes depicting the various lead characters on display in their freak show exhibit being mocked and laughed at by spectators. Instead, the screenplay for Freaks decides to eschew screentime dedicated to that type of anguish and turn it over to showing what the likes of Hans and Frieda are up to when they're not working at the circus, a choice that allows these two in particular to garner more depth as human beings.

That's a very wise choice in terms of characterization, though the staging and blocking of a number of these extended conversations feels like it could have used more imagination while I couldn't help but notice how a number of the members of this circuses freak show exhibit (like a guy whose basically just a head in a potato sack) remain only defined by their physical deformities instead of their individual personalities by the films end even given Freaks proclivity towards character-based dialogue and yes, I am aware of and taking into account how MGM cut out about an hour of footage from Freaks after a disastrous early screening.

That's a real shame given how well the feature does with really bringing certain characters to life, though at least the writing totally comes through in the climax which is where the horror elements really come to the forefront. The mood-oriented opportunities offered up by the unique lighting that can only come from shooting in black-and-white (which was the only way to film motion pictures in 1932, of course) get fully utilized in a rainstorm-set duel between the various "freaks" and Cleopatra. Memorably unsettling and suspenseful imagery abounds here in this finale that ensures that Freaks is able to close out on a high note.