Freaks - How I Failed the Test

Freaks

Director: Tod Browning

For the love of beauty is a deep-seated urge which dates back to the beginning of civilization. The revulsion with which we view the abnormal, the malformed and the mutilated is the result of long conditioning by our forefathers. The majority of freaks, themselves, are endowed with normal thoughts and emotions. Their lot is truly a heart-breaking one. –Special Message/Prologue

We accept you, we accept you… one of us, one of us… –Freaks

They did not ask to be brought into the word; but into the world they came. –Sideshow Barker

The Netflix description of this movie (see below) did very little to prepare me for what I was about to watch. Though, to be fair, I’m not sure any description could have fully prepared me. The movie’s Special Message prologue, some of which I’ve quoted above, dug a bit deeper into the heart of the matter, though I still couldn’t have fully known what to expect.

Netflix says,

Director Tod Browning cast authentic circus folk, not actors, in this Greek tragedy about sideshow “freaks.” Normal-sized trapeze artist Cleopatra marries diminutive Hans with plans to poison him, take his inheritance and marry the brute Hercules. When the freaks uncover Cleopatra’s scheme and Hercules forces himself on an innocent girl, they gang up on the two miscreants.

At times, I found it very uncomfortable to watch the movie. Many of the characters are, after all, genuine circus folks, considered sideshow freaks. We’re taught in today’s society, that physical appearance does not dictate inner beauty, and that we are not supposed to notice physical differences. That’s why portions of this movie are uncomfortable to watch. We are asked to view these people as abnormal, which goes against our moral training.

But the most human moments of the film, the scenes evoking the most emotion, are two involving the Freaks’ interaction with Cleopatra and Hercules, first at the Wedding Feast and then at the movie’s climactic terror scene. Watching the character of Frieda, elegantly dressed and styled, tear up as the love of her life suffers to see his new wife kissing Hercules, draws me into the pain of a broken-hearted woman, freak or no. The most painful part of this scene, however, is the look on the faces of the patrons as Cleopatra douses Angelo with the communal cup he has just offered her as a symbol of welcome to the family of the Freaks. The scene serves as an attempt by the freaks to show their acceptance of Cleopatra as “one of us.” Her outrage and Hans’s subsequent shame make it impossible to feel nothing. You can’t help but feel for the Freaks.

Similarly, the scene toward the movie’s end draws big emotions. Watching the family of Freaks close in upon the two villains under the dark of night in the pouring rain causes me to shudder and sink back into my chair. It is truly terrifying, both psychologically, as the Freaks, for the first time, are portrayed as the monsters the world claims they are; and emotionally, as I find myself, unknowingly (and, later, shamefully) relating to and associating myself with the “normal” Cleopatra and Hercules, despite the fact that they are the attempted murderers. And that goes back to my statement before: we’re taught to disregard and not really see physical deformities. Yet here I am, watching the group of Freaks – in this case the “good guys” – crawling toward the “normal” people – the “bad guys” – and I’m still relating to the people who intrinsically look more like me. While it’s definitely not a conscious decision, I realize upon analysis afterward that that moral training I’d been given by society hadn’t really stuck at all. And now I’m not uncomfortable looking at the Freaks; I’m uncomfortable looking at myself.

…

I watched the movie a second time in order to hear the commentary. There, I learned that several scenes were eliminated or severely altered for the sensors. The fates of Cleo and Hercules, in particular, were slated to be even more bone-chilling than they are. Another bit of information the commentator drops is that Browning, the film’s director, was known more for his silent films than for his “talkies,” which he apparently never warmed to. The two emotionally-charged scenes I discussed above are, in fact, built more for silent film than for sound. Re-watching the scenes with the sound muted, I completely agree. Throw in a few title cards and some whimsical Charlie Chaplin era instrumentals and the actors’ words wouldn’t even be necessary. I’d still feel the same way I did the first time…

The commentary was delivered by David Skal, a man known for his writings on the horror genre, both film and literature. While much of the information he provided was facts on the actors’ and director’s lives, he also spoke of the movie’s affectations on culture and society. References are apparently still being made of this movie today. As Skal so eloquently put it, “Whatever one thinks about it, Freaks is a film that simply won’t go away.” I know it will be that way for me, unpleasant though that may at times be.

My takeaway: Familial bonds know no physical deformities or individual insults – you hurt one, you've hurt them all and you had better beware. And often the truest freaks are the ones who look just like us.