Staunch Test PASS.
Chloe is a seven year old girl who lives with her protective father (Emile Hirsch). He doesn’t want her to leave the house and tells her that the world is a scary and dangerous place. One day she manages to leave the house when her father is asleep. She is approached by an old man (Bruce Dern) who claims to be her grandfather, he tells her that her mom (Amanda Crew) is alive and that she needs her help.
Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein give Freaks a very original take on the classic superhero origin story. Just as the movie X-Men did in the 2000, Freaks deals with discrimination.
Chloe’s father doesn’t want her to know that she is an “abnormal” just like him and her mother. He wants her to live a normal life but unfortunately her powers are too strong to stay hidden. He pays his neighbours to look after her but they don’t really want to deal with a “freak”, they just want his money.
Chloe is locked in a wardrobe by her father a couple of times in the movie but he does that because he wants to keep her safe, he doesn’t want her to leave the house, otherwise she will get killed.
Chloe’s mother is seen handcuffed and wounded in a special prison that the “normals” use to contain the freaks they successfully captured before executing them. Even though the mother is the only prisoner there the grandfather mentions several times that every abnormal that is found by the police is executed in that prison, it doesn’t matter if they are men, women or children.
The mother is being held captive because of her superpowers not because she is a woman, same thing with Chloe, her father doesn’t lock her up just because she’s a girl.
Even though Freaks is a very violent movie I would say it’s a #StaunchTestDebate.
Simona Columbano.
