Freaks (1932) - SCC review
- 2 days ago
Freaks 1932 link: https://x.com/SuperCultCinema/status/1800557045533254098
It’s popular to say that Tod Browning’s career-destroying, pre-code horror film was ‘ahead of its time,’ but it’s also hard to imagine it being made today. After all, a movie that spends a lot of its runtime gawking at people with physical disabilities probably wouldn’t go over well with modern audiences. Browning famously cast actual circus performers to depict a group of vengeful sideshow oddities, including Siamese twins, a limbless man and a ‘pinhead’. In the director’s defence, though, he allows them much more humanity than other filmmakers would have at the time - and in the end, the true monsters aren’t the ‘freaks’ but the gold-digging normie who manoeuvres into their ranks.
It’s popular to say that Tod Browning’s career-destroying, pre-code horror film was ‘ahead of its time,’ but it’s also hard to imagine it being made today. After all, a movie that spends a lot of its runtime gawking at people with physical disabilities probably wouldn’t go over well with modern audiences. Browning famously cast actual circus performers to depict a group of vengeful sideshow oddities, including Siamese twins, a limbless man and a ‘pinhead’. In the director’s defence, though, he allows them much more humanity than other filmmakers would have at the time - and in the end, the true monsters aren’t the ‘freaks’ but the gold-digging normie who manoeuvres into their ranks.