Freaks

For today's horror film I went way back to 1932 and watched Tod Browning's Freaks. Freaks was pre-Hays Code horror film that absolutely utilized this interesting moment in film history by pushing what was allowed in Hollywood movies. I won't go too deep into the history of the Hays Code, but essentially between the silent era and the sound era there was a period of about five years where movies were relatively unregulated. Movies like Freaks came out that pushed the envelope with their sexuality and violence. 

 Freaks follows a woman who marries a dwarf but is secretly poisoning him to inherit his sizable fortune. The rest of the circus troupe of freaks finds out and maims her, turning her into a freak as well. The most important dynamic of this movie and one that the most recent season of American Horror Story parroted is that "normal" humans are far more horrifying than the freaks. They lie, cheat and even kill when the freaks are, in many ways, far more normal.

The final scene of the film is stellar as well, as the freaks crawl through mud and a torrential downpour to maim their victim. It's actually genuinely damn horrifying. That coupled with just how taboo the subject matter is and you got yourself a well-derserving, bizarre cult classic.

8.5/10