A pre-code horror film from legendary director Tod Browning, Freaks lives on in infamy for its perverse message, timeless lines, and use of circus sideshow freaks at the height of their fame. At the time Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circuses made it a point to include freak shows along with an animal tent and the three ring big tops of yore. These "freaks" were often well paid and lived their retirement years very comfortably, especially those lauded as the most unusual such as conjoined twins, human torsos, and giantesses. In the film many of the most famous and well paid freaks in the country were cast, including Prince Randanian, and the Doll Family, including Dolly and Harry Earles as the couple torn apart by Cleopatra's obnoxious money hungry plot with strongman Hercules. The main focus of the film is that the freaks are regarded as trifle oddities and not true people by the villainous Cleopatra, and she is hunted down and paid for the crimes she commits against a dwarf who looks eerily like a small boy but is actually a full grown man. The film itself is very progressive in showing these sideshow performers not just as regular people, but also showing the hurt inflicted by those with little thought for others' feelings in a time without political correctness. It was interesting to watch the many feats of the performing freaks, those afflicted with problematic birth defects, and the now defunct lives of freak show performers, today not prevalent in society because most states ban freak shows from operating. The film doesn't build successfully to the final hideous climax at the end, because the rest of the film focuses on the characters as people and not monsters. None of them seem able to do the deed attributed to Cleopatra's downfall and therefore it's an unbelievable premise. Their creepy chanting at the wedding banquet and the steely resolve in their eyes as the thunder rips across the sky is believable but doesn't make sense, and deserved some of that iconic chanting. The beginning half of the film is unusually trimmed in humor, and includes a love story between an aerialist and a clown. The ending isn't even very horrific, but instead comical, and the additional prologue they tacked on was more confusing than anything. Even the beginning spiel that introduces the film is morose and certainly insulting to the performers. Iconic and interesting, but not the horror classic I was expecting.

A very odd film that forces everyone who sees it to confront their prejudices.