Finally out on DVD with a great transfer, MGM’s 1932 curiosity Freaks still packs a wallop. Originally marketed to cash in on the early horror craze, its emotional story lifts the movie well beyond a potential exploitation fest. The images of sideshow oddities lurking in the shadows retain their creep factor while movies like Se7en and Saw find new ways to shock out your eyeballs. Although director Tod Browning never strips the cast of their dignity, it’s hard not to cringe at how the living freaks are props as much as actors. It makes for a kind of disturbing entertainment that special effects can’t achieve. While a few of the performances are admittedly stilted (midget couple Harry and Daisy Earles, most notably) some of the actors really shine. Legless charmer Johnny Eck steals the show in his brief scenes, and makes me hope that the rumors of Leonardo DiCaprio possibly playing him in a bio-pic are true.

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