On American Horror Story: Freak Show’s Freaks Connection

For die-hard horror fans, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to watch American Horror Story: Freak Show and not think about the film Freaks. Tod Browning’s 1932 film tells the story of a beautiful trapeze artist named Cleopatra who schemes with the circus strongman to seduce and marry little person Hans in order to murder him and steal his vast inheritance. The sideshow freaks try to welcome Cleopatra into their family in the film’s most famous scene, but once they learn her plan, the performers chase down Hercules and Cleopatra, and take violent revenge on them both.

The movie has a lot in common with the current season of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, including the casting of people with various physical differences which could have gotten them work in an actual freak show. (Including vaudeville stars and conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton, and little person Angelo Rossitto who played The Master in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.) The penultimate episode of the series tipped its hat to the original film with a few references.

The obvious reference is, of course, how Elsa and her “monsters” as she calls them talk about the movie Freaks with Stanley, the man they all recently realized is physically attacking them to turn a profit. It is interesting to note the characters discussing the film and Elsa owning a copy, considering that this season of the show takes place in 1952. When the film was released, it was controversial and largely panned by an audience not used to seeing actors who were missing body parts or otherwise physically different on the silver screen.

One woman attempted to sue the studio, claiming that watching Freaks caused her to have a miscarriage. The original version of the film was changed after release and no copy of the original still exists. The film was actually banned in several states. Because some of the laws banning it were never changed, it technically still is illegal to watch in some states, though that law is not enforced in 2015 and is almost certainly constitutionally indefensible.

The movie was not really rediscovered until the 1960s, when it became popular as a midnight movie. It makes sense that sideshow performers in the 1950s would admire it, but Elsa owning a copy is not terribly likely. Though to be fair, American Horror Story is not a television show known for always being realistic.

After they describe the movie though, the freaks of American Horror Story chase Stanley through the sideshow, which bears a very striking resemblance to the scene in Freaks when Hercules and Cleopatra are perused near the end of Freaks. The movie also ends that scene in approximately the same spot that the show does, before the results of the revenge can be witnessed. The results are saved until later.

And yes, the actual result of the freak’s revenge. Stanley received the exact same treatment as Cleopatra. He was turned, as Dandy witnessed at the end of the episode, into a human duck. (Hercules’s specific fate is one of the lost portions of the film, though apparently the original plan was for him to be castrated and forced to sing in a falsetto while the Cleopatra duck quacked along.) The special effects may have improved over the last 80 or so years, but the result is just as horrifying.

With this season clearly inspired by this long ago movie, it is nice to see a more specific tip of the hat. The available edition of Freaks has a happy ending, with Hans living as a millionaire and reunited with his girlfriend Frieda. Will American Horror Story allow any of its characters a happily ever after this season? That will be revealed in the final episode, Wednesday the 21st.