I first heard of this movie through James Rolfe's Monster Madness. Then it turned out it was in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Then I heard it was on Turner Classic Movies, so I saw it.
It might seem like this is a horror film, and it's often marketed as such, but it's really. It's really a film about people.
Plot: In a circus, a group of "freaks" (played by real people with deformities) live in a society. A little person named Hans falls in love with a trapeze artist named Cleopatra. At first, she just leads him on for her amusement, but then she finds out that he has a lot of money, and decides to marry him, then kill him.
The large part of the movie is just the "freaks" interact, showing they are really just normal people. There's a man with no legs, another with no limbs, Siamese twins, the works. You can forget their different, they're just people trying to get by.
The main plot, I really felt for. I know what it's like to be led on like that. I sympathized with Hans far more than I expected. I've never experienced it to this level, but I know what it's like to be a walking punch line, to be used. So... yeah. It hit me.
There was one scene that everyone says is scary. It's where the freaks take their vengeance on Cleo. But it didn't scare me.
This movie was ahead of it's time, it really was. See it at least once.
No comments:
Post a Comment