Review #223: Freaks (1932)

This review was originally written in October 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #77: Freaks (1932)

So, in the past I've made comments to the effect of questioning who or what created this bucket list, due to the incredible number of films that either feel superfluous (like multiple instances of remakes being included along with the films they have recreated) or films that their inclusion on any sort of preferential list questions the creator's taste (like the many films that have just been awful). But the one thing that I keep finding myself going back to is a simple question: Is this horror?

Today's movie, Freaks, really tugs on that last thread. Freaks is listed on IMDB as being a "Horror/Drama". But what, if anything, makes this film horror? It is, at its core, a story about a group of people's love lives. The ending is shocking, but does one single shocking sequence set the genre for an entire film? Nothing about the rest of the film is scary. Nothing about the rest of the film is tense. Nothing about the rest of the film is dark, or macabre. We see a family celebrating the birth of a child, we see an engaged couple torn apart by infidelity, we see working people treating each other with respect and disdain and like and dislike and we watch them go about their lives. Nothing about this is remotely unsettling or grotesque.

Except...

...I can't help but feel like the entire reason this film was branded with the Horror genre is solely because the characters and the actors portraying them might make the audience uncomfortable. I'll get right out and say it: I think that the inclusion of Freaks on lists of horror films is an act of ableism and prejudice. If this film happened 100% exactly as it does, with 100% of the same lines and shots and scene compositions, if everything were the same except the characters and actors were all able-bodied individuals with nothing noteworthy about their appearances, would it still be horror? I don't think so.

Apparently I'm not the only person to question its genre (Wikipedia even has a section on its page for Freaks about its status as a horror film) but all of the given explanations for why it's horror just strike me as pretentious nonsense. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't understand how someone could watch this film and come out calling it horror, and (tying this back to what I was saying at the beginning) I would be shocked to find out the person or persons who made this bucket list had ever even seen the film. But then again, this is yet another movie (seems like every one of them I've reviewed this month) that was allegedly one of the movies nominated for the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Movies, which boggles my mind considering how 55 minutes of its 61-minute runtime is about a love triangle.

So that I don't spend the entire review complaining about something that isn't even present in the film, here's the summary: Freaks is a movie about a troupe of circus sideshow performers, and the various day-to-day interactions between them. In central focus are an engaged couple, Hans and Frieda, both affected by severe Dwarfism. Hans has become smitten with Cleopatra, an able-bodied trapeze artist, to the point where it is causing him to fall out of love with his fiancee. As he falls for this new woman, Frieda becomes convinced that Cleopatra is simply using Hans' affections for her own gain, eventually letting slip an accusation that the trapeze artist knows about the secret fortune Hans has inherited, and is only stringing him along to get his money. Cleopatra, learning of this fortune for the first time and eager to get out of the circus by any means necessary, submits to Hans' affections, and the two are married. She hatches a plan to kill Hans through slow poisoning in order to get his money, but her plot is discovered by the rest of the troupe, who maim her in retaliation, making her a sideshow attraction unto herself. The film then ends with a heartwarming scene where Hans and Frieda apologize and get back together.

And the thing is, this is actually a pretty good movie. I connected with the characters, I enjoyed seeing how they go about their lives, and it was good to see a villain get their comeuppance. But I feel like its inclusion as a horror film was a massive misstep at best, and is downright offensive at worst.

Overall Rating As A Horror Film: 0/10 Chicken Women

Overall Rating As A Drama: 7/10 Bearded Babies

Obvious Inspirations: In case you hadn't noticed, this movie was very clearly the main influence for the fourth season of American Horror Story (titled "Freak Show"). Many of the characters in that season are directly inspired by characters in this film, and Cleopatra's ultimate fate is inflicted upon one of the antagonists of that show as well. And THAT is a work of fiction that is undoubtedly horror!