“One of us, one of us, gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble, we accept her, we accept her.” This chilling chant of acceptance welcomes an outsider into a tight-knit family of outcast carnival sideshow performers at a wedding dinner. The so-called freaks in director Tod Browning’s infamous 1932 shocker aren’t family by blood, but rather by function, living by a code that protects one another, distrusts strangers, and sticks together in a world that rejects them. Reviled on its initial release, Freaks was seen as a grotesque horror film that aimed to disturb the masses by exposing them to real-life sideshow performers (“mistakes of nature” as one disgusted reviewer put it) with frightening deformities, rather than as a transgressive work of art showing empathy toward the oppressed and acceptance of the other.
Misunderstood as a shallow exploitation picture, Freaks was a personal film for its director. Running away to join the carnival at sixteen, Tod Browning lived on the road as a carnival barker. He experienced everything from the grotesqueries of the geek show to the sleight-of-hand fakery of the illusionists. He witnessed firsthand the cruelty of the business and the audience, all the while empathizing with the outcasts and vagabonds that surrounded him. Sideshow life and exploring the morbidity within the margins of society through an unsentimental yet compassionate lens became his artistic obsession.
After a short vaudeville career and a few early film acting jobs, Browning directed several pictures between 1917 and 1939, nothing bigger than Universal’s 1931 adaptation of Dracula. He directed Dracula, considered to be the first talkie horror movie, during his second stint with Universal, having previously worked for the legendary studio from 1919 to 1923. Between his two engagements with Universal, Browning had a successful run with Lon Chaney (whom he had previously directed in a supporting role), collaborating on several successful films for MGM, including The Unknown (1927), which explored the dark side of carnival life. They also worked together on what many consider the Holy Grail of lost films, 1927’s London After Midnight.
After Universal’s massive success with Dracula, MGM set out to make monster movies of their own, hiring the master of the macabre himself, Browning, to direct an adaptation of the 1923 Tod Robbins short story, “Spurs”, about a beautiful trapeze artist who seduces and marries a little person sideshow performer when she finds out he’s wealthy. With Freaks, MGM sought to capitalize on the success of Universal’s monster boom, but what they got was a grim carnival fable that pushed the boundaries of the time, and a film that required extensive cuts due to its perceived offensiveness to the audience. Freaks all but disappeared into obscurity, and Browning would retire in 1939.
Eventually re-evaluated for its heart and exploration of human relationships through the heartbreak and struggles of its main characters, Freaks manages to shock audiences still. In one of the most horrific and unforgettable endings in cinematic history, the film reveals the terrifying lengths to which this found family goes to exact retribution against interlopers who cross them. Freaks is an endearing cult classic that deserves to be seen in a theatre, but be aware: you will not forget it.