The most transgressive film produced by a major American studio in the 1930s, Tod Browning's crowning achievement has haunted the margins of cinema for nearly one hundred years. An unforgettable cast of real-life sideshow performers portray the entertainers in a traveling circus who, shunned by mainstream society, live according to their own code—one of radical acceptance for the fellow oppressed and, as the show's beautiful but cruel trapeze artist learns, of … mehrterrifying retribution for those who cross them. Received with revulsion by viewers upon its initial release, Freaks effectively ended Browning's career but can now be seen for what it is: an audacious cry for understanding and a singular experience of nightmarish, almost avant-garde power.
Extras:
Audio commentary by author and Tod Browning biographer David Skal (2004)
"Tod Browning's Freaks: The Sideshow Cinema" 2004 documentary (63:21)
Special Message Prologue sequence (2:34)
Alternate Endings with 2004 introductions by David Skal (5:57) weniger