The title of this early horror flick implies that the scares originate from said freaks, but one watch will prove that wrong. Your heroes for Tod Browning’s 64-minute feature aren’t the handsome strongman and beauty queen couple but the sideshow performers who’ve made their own welcoming family. In fact, the real menaces are those so-called normal folks, who for no reason but their own bigotry tease and taunt the freaks – to their own demise, of course. Though the original 90-minute version Browning made was lost forever, what remains is still a powerful piece of filmmaking crucial to the watch history of any horror fan. – James Scott
