Boing Boing reports another classic horror movie being made available on the web, this time one rather superior to the early Coppola Dementia 13 grindhouse flick I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, 1932′s Freaks. The brainchild of Tod Browning, who has struck box office gold previously with a major horror hit (not to mention creating an immortal screen icon) in Dracula with a certain Bela Lugosi, Freaks is, unlike many of that great era of horror movies (which include the aforementioned Dracula, Whale’s Frankenstein and the Wolf-Man), still genuinely chilling and disturbing, partly for its themes of mutilation, betrayal, revenge and discrimination and dark sexual undercurrents (all the more daring for the time it was made).
But its even more famous (or infamous depending on your views) even in our jaded, multi-media, seen-it-all modern era for a simple reason: Freaks still disturbs and shocks, largely because it draws on real-life ‘freaks’ (if you’ll pardon the phrase). That’s not prosthetic make-up, that’s a real microcephalic (or ‘pin head’ as most people would know the condition) and the majority of the cast is likewise made up of performers drawn from the sideshows of America, with real oddities and deformities. Its either empowering to see people who were normally forced to exhibit themselves to earn a living (this was the golden era of travelling carnivals and side-shows, often including ‘freak shows’, touring America) being given central billing in a major studio movie or else it is exploitative, again depending on your viewpoint. Or perhaps parts of both at the same time, because this is a movie which is black and white only in terms of its photography.
Browning himself had spent time before his directorial days working alongside Carnies in the 20s and he drew on those experiences and contacts in making Freaks. The world of the 30s wasn’t ready for it and really today I still find it far more compelling and disturbing than anything torture-porn modern horrors like Saw can throw my way. Where many modern horrors rely on overflowing gore effects and bludgeon their audience, Freaks gets inside your skull, under your skin and it leaves you uncomfortable – surely people like this deserve to be seen too and yet oh, don’t I feel guilty for their spectacle stimulating a voyeuristic streak of dark fascination… And that’s part of its power, the viewer becomes complicit in the spectacle. Simply using unfortunate people for voyeuristic thrills or championing them as people with fears and hopes like anyone else, whatever your views its a movie which deserves to be watched, still retaining a shocking powers almost eight decades on. Its one of the most unusual films you’ll ever watch and if you feel disturbed after it that’s alright – you’re supposed to be… The nearest to this mixed feeling of compassion-voyeurism-horror I’ve felt since I first saw this movie is reading Armand Marie Leroi’s award-winning science book Mutants (also recommended if you’ve never come across it). Freaks is now available to watch on the Internet Archive.
Mon, Aug 4, 2008
Film, TV and radio