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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Little do they know that their new boss experiments on humans or that he’s searching for individuals with special abilities to better serve the Reich and his beloved führer.
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.
