and
It is said that humans are inherently afraid of things that are unknown or foreign to them. Racism, Fascism, Xenophobia, Religious prejudice, many of the things that we consider the bane of humanity, the black marks in the history of our collective civilization, could be contributed at a basic level to fear. All because a bunch of hairy protohumans needed to a way to make sure they didn’t have their fruit stolen or eaten by cave-snakes and giant sloths.
Horrible? Yes. Devaluing to the entire experience of being human? Yes. Yet it is those fears of ours that inspired some of our greatest works of art, and of course the very idea of horror. It was the fear of those great unexplored frontiers, outer space and the depths of the ocean, H.P. Lovecraft used in the creation of his Cthulu Mythos. It is our fear of of solitude that give that chilling edge to films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes (even though that movie sucks). It is the ultimate fear, the fear of death, that was the basis for vampires and ghosts. We may be slaves to these primal urges, but at least we have the intelligence to recognize it, and attempt to move beyond them.
Such is the case with Freaks, directed by Tod Browning, who had helped kick off the Universal monster series and horror cinema in general with Dracula the year before. The story, a classic tale of love, greed and bloody revenge, utilizes the most elemental ‘monsters’ of them all: those with physical deformities (no special effects here, it’s all natural), what they used to call sideshow acts back when traveling circuses were still a thing. However, in what was probably a huge twist in the 30s, where they still gawked at people with disabilities and hated everything that wasn’t a WASP, the so-called ‘freaks’ are not portrayed as the villains here. In fact, they are treated as a nice, close-knit family, able to laugh and love and everything a human is capable of. Instead it is the ‘superior’ people, the strong, the beautiful, who are the true villains and are eventually damned due to their greed and hatred. It’s a powerful statement on the inherently destructive nature of prejudice in an era where a significant portion of the population were barred from voting or eating at certain restaurants, and I have to wonder whether that was the intent or even if moviegoers/critics even recognized that subtext. I’m sure if the circus folks were slightly more tanned, the movie would have taken a different turn.
By treating the ‘freaks’ as people defending themselves from assholes, it does mean that Freaks isn’t really all that scary. Aside from the climax, which can be truly chilling, I doubt even the most thin-skinned of watchers will find that much to fear here. However the same could be said of most movies of this era when viewed by a modern audience, and in my opinion it’s paced far better than Dracula (which can be a slog if you’re not used to it), which makes it a far easier film to watch. It’s got a bit of that cult film feel to it, and you know I’m a fan of those cult films. This is your history homework for the Marathon this year, so check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment