31 Days of Horror: Day 1: Freaks (1932)

Yes, the best month of the year has begun!!! Let the horror commence! Freaks (1932) is one of the strangest horror movies I've ever watched. It's not terrifying because of the circus performers, which might be surprising to some of you who know that I'm afraid of the circus. All because of having to watch circus freak videos in honors biology class every single day for about a week. The videos were actually titled 'Circus Freaks.' My biology teacher was a weirdo. I only got freaked out from the guy that purposely slit his tongue and eyes to look like a snake. He also had implants in his face that he tattooed. Anyway, what frightens me with Freaks is how absolutely horrible and monstrous some people can be.

Freaks is about a traveling circus group. The leader of the group, Hans, falls in love with a trapeze artist, Cleopatra. He thinks she's the most beautiful woman that he has ever seen and that she is perfectly sweet. However, we quickly learn that Cleopatra is anything but sweet and Hans love is one-sided. Cleopatra is a cruel, evil woman who only pretends to love Hans because she knows that he has money. However, she plans on seducing Hans, marrying him, and then killing him so that she can escape with her boyfriend with all of the inheritance money.

Some of Hans' friends try to tell him that Cleo isn't exactly who he thinks she is, but Hans is so blinded by love, he refuses to believe that she's anything but perfect. He decides to marry Cleopatra. During the wedding party, everyone is celebrating with tons of alcohol. Cleo becomes so drunk that she ends up letting Hans and the sideshow performers, what she really thinks of all of them. She also attempts to poison Hans, which obviously is not going to go over well with Hans or his friends. Together, the freaks decide it's time to do something to stop Cleopatra...

This is not your typical horror film. It is very strange the first time watching and it's not scary in a gory sense. I recommend it because it's different. I also think it's interesting that this was banned in the UK for 30 years.