Rating: 2/5
Hooptober 5.0 | 14/32 | Before 1970 5/6
Carnival rides, cotton candy, games, exotic dancers, (??), sword swallowing, snake charming — yep, this is a lot of carnival b-role. Finally, the film moves into the freak show tent.
There are only two kinds of freaks, ladies and gentlemen: those made by God and those made by man... Look, if you must
We transition to Jade working her miserable diner job. The men who dine there and her boss hit on her, and she pushes them all away. Her boss asks:
— Who do you think you are? — I know who I am. I'm nobody, just like you.
Jade looks for a way out of her current life. Steve, the carnival owner, comes in. Jade asks him for any extra work, and she gets work serving meals to the carnival staff.
Everything goes well until she sees the freak show. Her disgust upsets Moon, who tries to help her see them as God’s creatures.
Soon, it becomes clear that this movie is a remake of Tod Browning’s Freaks told from Cleopatra’s perspective. Here, Jade takes Cleopatra’s role and gives the audience a more sympathetic look at the dregs of life that motivate so much cruelty.
The movie’s most prominent issue is its bloated runtime. The original Freaks was just over an hour, and this has less to say. So, we get a ton of carnival B-role.
Then again, it’s all filmed at a real carnival, so it feels down to earth. And it gets a little hypnotic/vibey after a while, especially at night.
The movie doesn’t become “horror” until literally the last 3 minutes.
I watched the Vinegar Syndrome restoration, which looks outstanding. While I’m happy they preserved this movie, I wish I got more out of it.