Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageFreaks (1932)
Director: Tod Browning
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A superb and unique film from that master of the morbid, masochistic and macabre, Tod Browning. Set in a travelling circus - a milieu Browning knew and loved from his own experience - it shows the revenge taken by a group of circus freaks on a beautiful trapeze artist and her strongman lover after they have tried to kill a midget (the marvellous Harry Earles, one of the stars of Browning's The Unholy Three) for his fortune. The basic themes of the film are the strength in solidarity of the individually weak freaks, and the inner beauty of the physically malformed as compared to the greed and deceit of the physically resplendent. Although using real freaks, Browning's treatment is never voyeuristic or condescending, but sympathetic in such a way that after a few minutes we almost cease to perceive them as in any way abnormal. There is a strong, black humour that, remarkably, lacks cruelty, and a real sense of terror in the awful revenge the wronged freaks exact. MGM never knew what hit them with this film; they virtually disowned it, and it remained unseen in Britain until the '60s. It has now achieved deserved recognition as a masterpiece.Author: GA
User reviews of this film
-
- I bow down humbly in the said...
- Posted on Nov 07 2011 15:59 I bow down humbly in the presecne of such greatness.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Tod Browning
Producer: Tod Browning
Cast: Harry Earles, Olga Baclanova, Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Henry Victor, Daisy Earles full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Rated: 12A
Duration: 64 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
What do you think?
Post your review now