Before I started studying horror as a path toward getting a doctorate, I’d never heard of Tod Browning’s Freaks.  In fact, I’d only vaguely heard of Tod Browning.  I’d seen his 1931 rendition of Dracula, featuring Bela Lugosi, one fall night quite a few years ago, when Tinseltown was doing a double feature of Browning’s Dracula, followed by the far superior Spanish version of the film shot the same year (on the same set, but at night, with a different director).  I suppose back then I thought of myself as a bit of a horror connoisseur, but perhaps I was basking in my own ego – and that ego was eclipsing all my knowledge of what I didn’t know.  Because what I’ve learned since I started reading about horror is that Tod Browning is considered a central auteur in the horror field.  In terms of horror cinema, he’s easily one of the genre’s founders, and with good (varying) reasons. Continue reading “My First Viewing of Freaks (1932)” →