"Freaks" does some things very memorably and there is some truth to the fact that director Tod Browning takes what is sensational (deformed human beings) and uses it as a hook to probe some deeper meaning. At the same time, the major...
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"Freaks" does some things very memorably and there is some truth to the fact that director Tod Browning takes what is sensational (deformed human beings) and uses it as a hook to probe some deeper meaning. At the same time, the major story is very simple, and is told tthroughout history, a woman marrying a man for his money. While the fact that the man is a midget is different, the human story is the same. Nothing could really have been different in the so-called "original un-cut" version.

The acting is bad, and this spoils some scenes or makes them very hard to hear - in fact, the conjoined twin sisters are the best actors in the entire film. Most fatally, however, is the fact that "Freaks" uses considerable time to build up viewer acceptance and goodwill toward circus side show people, and wastes it on a horror storyline that has them enact a grisly vengeance that is really beneath the moral "code" so carefully established earlier.