Freaks (1932)
Starring: Olga Baclanova, Wallace Ford, Harry Earles, Leila Hyams, Henry Victor, Daisy Earles
Director: Tod Browning
Synopsis: Fascinating masterpiece of the macabre... a huge classic
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

 

This masterpiece of the macabre remains one of the timeless classics of the horror genre. Director Tod Browning was nearly ruined by the film, so shockingly ahead of its time was Freaks.

Neither audiences nor critics were prepared for anything quite like it and MGM, the studio that released the film, reacted almost as if it had given birth to Rosemary's Baby, distancing itself from Freaks at every opportunity.

The film remained banned in Britain for more than thirty years before better sense finally prevailed. Today it stands as one of the finest examples of Browning's extraordinary talent, a talent already evident in films such as Dracula, The Devil-Doll and The Unknown.

Freaks is a dark and disturbing allegory in which the truly grotesque characters are not the physically deformed sideshow performers but the outwardly beautiful and vain members of so-called "normal" society. Olga Baclanova, as the beautiful but deeply malicious trapeze artist Cleopatra, delivers one of the most memorable performances in horror cinema. Her drunken behaviour during the unforgettable wedding banquet is only one of several remarkable moments.

The gruesome, surreal climax remains one of the most extraordinary sequences ever committed to film, as twisted, unsettling and unforgettable today as it was upon its original release. It is a cinematic masterwork of the highest order and firmly secures Tod Browning's place among the true giants of horror cinema.