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The horror genre is often called "Scary Movies" by my students, and it had its
roots in the silent cinema and German Expressionism of the 1920s, This is best
seen in films like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(1920), The Golem and How He Came into This World (1922), and Nosferatu: A
Symphony of Terror (1922). It finally blossomed and reached its first commercial
peak with the magnificent 1930's Universal monster movie cycle. The genre
exploded and we saw some of the greatest horror films ever ever made during this
period including: Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932),
The Mummy (1932), Dr. X (1932), White Zombie (1932), The Old Dark House (1932),
Island of Lost Souls (1932), Murders in the Zoo (1933). The Invisible Man
(1933), The Black Cat (1934), The Raven (1935), Crime of Dr.Crespi (1935),
Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Dracula’s Daughter (1936), and Son of Frankenstein
(1939). This era introduced every major type of horror antagonist, except for
demons, witches, and mad-slasher's.
One of the best directors to emerge in the genre at this time was Tod Browning,
who had a fascination with carnivals and the grotesque. He directed The Unholy
Trio (1925), The Unknown (1927), London after Midnight (1927), Dracula (1931),
Mark of the Vampire (1935), and Devil Doll (1936) and his final film Miracles
for Sale (1939). Of all his films, the one
with the greatest cultural impact was Dracula, in which Hungarian actor Bela
Lugosi established the cinematic image of Count Dracula forever. But by
the early 30's Browning's style had not yet fully adapted to sound films, and despite
the fine performances and classic dialogue, Dracula comes off as a bit stagey
and static. It looks and sounds old today as it did when it was first released.
Post Dracula his directorial style evolved sufficiently to have crafted the weirdest and most shocking film that Browning ever did-1932’s
Freaks, one
which still scares people today. This film works better than Dracula (released
just the previous year), and it never feels like a filmed play. There are scenes and events
scarier than anything in the earlier vampire film. Of course some would argue
that Freaks is not a horror film at all, but rather a dark revenge drama
with horror elements. Po-ta-to/po-tot-toe, by either classification it is
definitely horror enough to include in this my final entry for this years
October "Halloween Horror" cycle of reviews.
Freaks was considered so shocking in its initial release that it was banned in
much of the world for the next thirty plus years. Then it was revived by
countercultural film aficionados at American colleges and art-house cinemas in
the 1960s. Many of them were looking for anti-establishment art that questioned
or went against traditional Hollywood values and/or films that replaced or
subverted traditional ideas of good and evil. Contemporary films of the time that
the movement championed included: Man with No Name trilogy (1964-66), Bonnie and
Clyde (1967), The Graduate {1967), and Midnight Cowboy (1969), Easy Rider
(1969), The Wild Bunch (1969). By then, many in the movement had embraced the term
“freak” as a compliment. This was exemplified beyond film, by rock stars like Frank Zappa
who self-identified
themselves as “freaks,” a term they saw as a far more positive term than
“hippies.” Today Freaks has been completely reevaluated by critics and is now
considered a cinematic classic; it was even added to the United States National Film
Registry, which contains many of the most acclaimed films ever made.
Unlike other monster/horror films then or even now,
Freaks spotlights and employed real circus sideshow performers as the actors in
the films cast. Where Chaney or Karloff put on layers of make-up to become their
characters/monsters, when the camera goes off you realize these really aren't
characters but the real life people living daily with their disabilities (or
different abilities). Everything from slight to severe deformities are on
display but the film portrays most of them very
sympathetically and effectively humanizes them by normalizing their lives. Acclaimed film critic Andrew
Sarris even called it: "one of the most compassionate films ever made.” There
have not been many other films that have done this apart from Terror of Tiny
Town (1938) and Even Dwarves Started Small (1970), both of which which have also
become cult favorites.
The themes in Freaks reflects the time in which it was made-deep in the midst's
of the Great Depression of the 1930's. Many in society were angry at the
wealthy, whom they blamed for the economy's collapse and their resultant
destitution. Moviegoers wanted to see someone get revenge on the elite and/or
beautiful people, and this film fulfilled that desire. The film reverses the
typical film scenario in which most of the ”good people” are portrayed as
beautiful and the "evil people" are portrayed as monstrous-looking and amoral. A
year earlier Frankenstein (1931) lightly treaded this same ground with the
sympathetic misunderstood monster and his handsome but cold and distant
creator.
Here the main story is set against a traveling freak show circus and involves
the trapeze artist, Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), a femme fatale who schemes and
plots against Hans (Harry Earls), one of the circus midgets. She starts flirting
with Hans even though she is already involved with a sadistic strongman named
Hercules (Henry Victor). Additionally, Hans is engaged to Frieda (played by his
real-life sister, Daisy Earls) bit smitten by Cleo's wiles. At first, she is just teasing him for
her own amusement, but things change when she accidentally overhears that Hans is going to
receive a big inheritance, so she gets him to marry her. This scenario is
somewhat reminiscent of the love triangle in The Blue Angel (1930), in which
another scheming seductress takes advantage of a romantically inexperienced man
while she sleeps with another, better-looking man on the side. The wedding scene
is probably the most memorable in the movie. The drunk and abusive bride
continually humiliates her much shorter groom, but he just grins and bears it.
She even puts him on her back and gives him a piggyback ride as if he were a
toddler. During this scene, the sideshow people start chanting, “We accept her,
one of us. Gooble-Gobble, we accept you, one of us.” A this point the circle of
"freaks" she has seduced into her faux acceptance has grown from one to all. She
reacts in horror against him and yells back cruelly at the rest: “No, freaks,
get out of here. you filth!” Cleopatra shortly begins poisoning her new husband
during their "honeymoon" in collaboration with the strong man, but she does not
know that the freak code is-if you offend one, you offend them all. At the end,
they all take their terrible unforgettable revenge on her, and in some prints
the strong man as well.
As with any good horror films there are moments of levity to break the tension
and layers of meaning to contextualize the shock. Here some unexpected macabre
comedy can be found involving two conjoined female twins. One of the sisters,
Violet, is already married, and her sister, Daisy, receives a marriage proposal
from her boyfriend. When Daisy and her fiancé kiss, the other sister feels it
and smiles glowingly. After Daisy gets married, she says, “You must come and see
us sometime,” to Violet.
There is also a great scene in which Frieda goes to see Cleopatra to plead with her
to stay away from her man, and Cleo treats her with complete dismissive ness and
patronization. The sad scene recalls the classic Dolly Parton song, in which a
woman who loves a man tries to keep a much more beautiful woman from stealing
him away from her. Another unforgettable scene occurs when a bunch of pinheads
and other freaks are playing, and a regular guy comes across them and is
horrified. But the woman who watches over them treats all of them as if they were
her own daughters and
sons says that when the weather is nice, she likes to take them out in the sun
so they can play like children. They obviously adore her, and she clearly loves
the gentle souls back. This is the scene that does the most to totally humanize
the sideshow people.
Freaks had an enormous influence on popular culture, particularly music. David
Bowie referenced it in his sci-fi song "Diamond Dogs," and it was a favorite
film of the great American punk band The Ramones. Both the Ramones members and
their fans identified with the “ugly people" or “freaks” in the movie. The chant
that their fans scream at Ramones gigs, “Gabba Gabba Hey” (I've seen this in
person), is a distorted version of what the sideshow characters chant during the
wedding scene. Also, the song Pinhead has the lines: ’I don’t want to be a
pinhead no more/I just met a nurse that I could go for,” is told from the point
of view of one of the characters in the film.
I know most people looking for the film will stream it, but there are some
good reasons to track down the DVD version, which is available at many
libraries. It includes such extras as: Dark Car Golem and How He Came into This Worldnival. a doc about
Tod Browning, a doc about sideshow films, and a
prologue, which was sometimes added to the film which was originally released around 90 minutes long, but they kept cutting it until
it's now only a 64 minute long version remains—basically just one extra commercial break longer
than a TV cop show. If they ever found the complete cut, my ideal dream double
feature would be to see it with a found film version of the long-lost Browning
film, London After Midnight. But what remains is still one of the most
unforgettable and boldest cult thrillers ever made. It ranked at number 10 on my
Top 100 Best Horror Films List.
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