Freaks: You’re One of Us is a 2020 German superhero film directed by Felix Binder and written by Marc O. Seng. A collaboration between Netflix and the German television broadcaster ZDF, Freaks: You’re One of Us stars Cornelia Groschel, Tim Oliver Schultz and Nina Kunzendorf and seems to be the coming together of performers and filmmakers who have been crossing each other’s paths for a few years now.
Freaks: You’re One of Us follows Wendy (Groschel) who lives a painfully average life in suburban Germany; she works long hours as a fry cook beneath a horrible boss, fights with her husband, is at risk of being evicted from their family home and watches her son get bullied. However, at the beginning of the film, we’re shown a glimpse of destruction somehow caused by Wendy when she’s only a child at school and we learn that since then she has been on consistent medication and has regular visits with a particular shrink. This is – quite predictably – not what it seems and the rest of the film works to unravel the mysterious reasoning behind the medication.
One of my biggest critiques of the film is how predictable it is. Right from the start, we are given both visual imagery and dialogue to explain plot points as they’re happening, which felt over the top and eliminated any chance of surprises or twists. I have no doubt that majority of the audience would have easily caught on if plot points were revealed either visually or through dialogue (not both), and the over-explaining led to the first half of the film feeling incredibly slow. There was not enough character backstory and yet too much time focusing on day to day life where a short conversation could have filled in all those blanks rather than having to visually show us everything in detail.
The story itself follows a very typical trajectory with a problem arising, a pleasant calm before the storm followed by a lot of action and a conclusion. The ending of Freaks: You’re One of Us is clearly open to a sequel and doesn’t give the closure needed for this film to stand alone – you are left not understanding who certain characters are or why they were important, whether or not already existing characters will return, and whether other characters are alive or dead.
My only other criticism comes from a position of being incredibly spoilt with Marvel and DC-quality superhero films, however, the effects in Freaks: You’re One of Us weren’t great and it’s clear the budget wasn’t there to make use of large amounts of new technology or rely on CGI as a viable option. Creative editing and shot composition meant that a lot of the action actually happened off-screen and we were either hearing or being told what was happening. For the few action scenes that were shown, some powers looked relatively realistic and impressive while other powers looked cheap and non-convincing.
Having said all that, there were some things I did enjoy about the film. I appreciated that a superhero film had a female lead who was not only a superhero but a working mum and wife which added a little depth to her character (even if it wasn’t explored). I also really liked the story of side character Elmar (Schultz). Although his storyline may be more predictable to fans of the superhero/supervillain dynamic, it may still surprise some people and he is an enjoyable addition to the film.
Freaks: You’re One of Us isn’t a bad film – it’s entertaining, non-offensive and even pretty funny at times. However, it occasionally feels like it’s in over its head and has to rely on tropes and predictability to keep afloat. Could have been better, could have been worse.
Score: 2.5/5