The premise for Freaks vs the Reich, in which a 12-fingered Nazi pianist with the ability to see into the future pursues a circus troupe with superpowers during the second World War, reads as if it could be an offering from the people who brought you Sharknado 5.
Despite a scene that can only be described as “robust wereman and werewoman sex”, Gabriele Mainetti’s bouncy, carnivalesque alternate history is closer in tone to Hellboy than throwaway Syfy-channel Naziploitation.
In 1943 the Circus Mezzapiotta, owned by the Jew Israel (as everyone calls him), houses four remarkable acts: electrified girl Matilde (Aurora Giovinazzo), who electrocutes anyone who touches her; Cencio, an albino boy with a psychic link to insects; “man-beast” Fulvio, a strongman with hypertrichosis; and magnetic Mario.
As the war heats up and their big top is bombarded, the players decide to escape to the United States. Unhappily, Israel is intercepted by the Nazis. A doting Matilde rushes to the rescue, stumbling into a den of unlikely guerrillas led by a hunchback along the way. Her former comrades, meanwhile, unwisely head towards the Berlin Zircus, a popular attraction headlined by the ether-huffing, swastika-emblazoned maestro Franz (Franz Rogowski, having a blast).
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Mainetti’s script, written with Nicola Guaglianone, gets to something that numerous prettified superhero franchises have attempted without success: the monstrousness of enhanced abilities. With echoes of The Wizard of Oz, Freaks vs The Reich sees its differently-abled quartet attempt a daring heist on a Nazi train carrying “undesirables” to a terrible fate.
Production designer Massimiliano Sturiale and art directors Carlo Serafini and Alessandro Troso add gaiety – if more were needed – to a big-hearted adventure. Welcome flourishes include a sweet puppy-love subplot and a bad guy who, intersecting with Andrew Legge’s Lola, cribs Sweet Child O’ Mine and Creep from his visions of the future.
