Freaks

[Boasts] some of the most terrifying scenes ever consigned to film.

Browning's sympathies are clear; if there are "freaks" on display here, they are not the versatile performers to whom the title seems to allude.

One of the most powerful films ever made about the need for humanity and solidarity in the face of cruelty and oppression.

Freaks is sumptuously produced, admirably directed, and no cost was spared. But Metro failed to realize that even with a different sort of offering the story still is important.

Director Tod Browning, one of the few truly individual directors in the U. S., is a specialist in horror.

If the heart of the horror movie is the annihilating Other, the Other has never appeared with more vividness, teasing sympathy, and terror than in this 1932 film by Tod Browning.

That such a daring, transgressive film was made by a major studio in the early ‘30s remains a marvel (thanks, Irving Thalberg)&#59; that it irreparably harmed the career of its director is disheartening if not surprising.

Each one, by nature of the period in which they were released and how audiences responded to them, have a legacy that must be explored, mulled over, and come to terms with if cinema is going to tell honest stories without exploitation.

An astounding film.

While Freaks might not be perfect, its respect and empathy for such a marginalized group so early on is absolutely worth noting.