On today’s episode, we’re heading back to 1932 with Tod Browning’s controversial film, Freaks. The behind the scenes story of a sideshow carnival, Browning cast real-life carnival performers with visible disabilities to mixed reaction. Both celebrated as an example of pre-Code horror and reviled as exploitation, this is, to put it mildly, a divisive film. But why?
We’re exploring depictions of disability in horror in this episode and asking what it is about Freaks, specifically, that audiences find so triggering so stay tuned.
