1932, MGM Repertory, 64 min, USA, Dir: Tod Browning
"Gooble gobble, gooble gobble, we accept her, we accept her, one of us, one of us!" Based on the simple moral that beauty is on the inside comes this inspired, documentary-like tale of circus life. Trapeze artist Cleopatra and strongman Hercules plot to kill the sideshow midget and gain his inheritance. With never-again duplicated eerie performances by real-life siblings Daisy and Harry Earles as Hans and Frieda. Featuring the beautiful conjoined Hilton Twins, Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow as Zip and Pip the pinheads, Johnny Eck as Johnny the half-boy and the unforgettable Prince Randian as the human Torso, with the most amazing cigarette-smoking scene in film history. Drawing from past experience working for the circus, DRACULA director Tod Browning cast actual people with disabilities and deformities instead of using special effects and makeup, something unthinkable for the time. Although banned in the U.K. for 30 years, FREAKS was selected for preservation in 1994 by the United States National Film Registry as one of the greatest films of all time.
50th Anniversary!
CARNIVAL OF SOULS
1962, 78 min, USA, Dir: Herk Harvey
After a devastating car accident that kills her friends, Mary Henry takes a new job in a new town and tries to start over - but a phantom figure follows her until she visits an abandoned carnival and dark secrets come to light. Herk Harvey's surrealist masterpiece is one of the great classics of the horror genre
