Freaks vs The Reich (Freaks Out)

Presented a Glasgow FrightFest 2022 under the title Freaks Out, it finally gets a proper cinema release in the UK, now titled Freaks Vs The Reich. This review is slightly edited from the one that was first published after the FrightFest screening.

At two hours plus Freaks Out is in line with the current trend for long films. Unlike some though there isn’t any flab or a wasted second. It's a powerful and moving tale of gifted outsiders and performers during the Second World War caught up in Hitler’s crackpot ideas about the use of the occult, fed by his equally loony and dangerous acolytes.

The film set in 1943 opens in a circus big top amidst some gorgeous images and colour; The Half Penny Circus entertainers are in full flow when they are bombed. Destitute with little choice but to abandon the circus a group look towards the future and decide that maybe it’s America.

Travelling in traditional caravans they are: Matilde (Aurora Giovinazzo) who can harness electricity but her touch is deadly so her hands are permanently gloved. Fluvio (Claudio Santamaria) the strongman, Cencio (Pietro Castellitto) can control insects, while Mario (Giancarlo Martini) has magnetic power. Their appearance makes them easy targets for the Nazis taking them to be gipsies or disabled and their erstwhile leader Israel (Giorgio Tirabassi) is a Jew.

They decide that America is the only option so Israel sets off with their money to book passage. When he doesn’t return there’s dissent within the troupe with only Matilde supporting him. Making their way to Rome they arrive in the midst of a full-scale Nazi clearance that splits the four: the men end up at the Nazi Zircus Berlin led by the twelve fingered Franz (Franz Rogowski), a devoted Nazi and clairvoyant, looking to curry favour with Hitler but also harness the power of the ‘freaks’. Matilde scorns the Zircus to go out and search for Israel.

The film from there develops several strands with Israel forced on a horrific journey to the camps (not shown) every now and then intersecting with Matilde whose power is ever developing, and the others as they plot to escape the demented Franz battling his brother Amon, senior officers as well as his own mind.

A wonderful film from start to finish it has been so carefully constructed that one is barely aware of the joins: the images, script and acting are in perfect harmony. There are moments of tender love, joy and affection. There’s lusty, hairy sex, scenes of violence and cruelty with dashes of madness and science fiction.

What is truly remarkable is that for a large main cast, writer and director Gabriele Mainetti (from a story by Nicola Guaglianone) doesn’t skimp on any of the characterisation; they are delicately developed and beautifully played whether good or evil. This depth matches the sumptuous sets and landscapes which are impeccably designed and shot.

There’s a fantastical and magical air about Freaks Out that is tempered and grounded by the Nazis hatred and the sadness that the protagonists’ powers make them outcasts even in their own country. Even between them there are schisms though their bond is never truly fractured; they just share (and have shared) far too much. This is an elegant, tragic, though ultimately uplifting film.

Freaks vs The Reich will be released in UK cinemas on 12 January 2024.