I had no idea that Tod Browning's FREAKS was in the public domain...

Can't believe every cheap, schlocky first time director hasn't tried remaking it.

On the other hand, it would be a great chance to do a movie based on Paul Quarrington's "Home Game" which is essentially about a baseball game between the Freaks and fundamentalist ball playing monks for the fate of the world.

Just decided to read a little about public domain (thank you, Wikipedia). This might be the reason it's not getting remade every other year:

There are a lot of little things like that regarding public domain so I'm sure the fact that Freaks hasn't been remade isn't for lack of trying.

One of my favourite films, though haven't watched it in a few years due to having to write an essay on it for my film studies class.

Would be great to see a remake. But in the back of my head i see a Rob Zombie version that i would despise immensely.

This would be a hard one to remake because the original still holds up, maybe if they did in the veign of carnivale it could work.
Also night of the living dead is in public domain and has been remade every year pretty much. I am supprised the same hasn't happened to this.

This would be hard to remake because the power of the original is in knowing that all those motherfuckers were real. A remake would be an ethical minefield, but I could see Harmony Korine giving it a shot.

Agreed, knowing that it was all real is what makes it so interesting.
A remake would indeed be either an ethical minefield, or it would be all cg and make you deja vu back to the cg ET and just wonder why they bothered.

I don't think a modern remake would be anywhere as effective. More than the performers being real, Freaks has this singular ambiance that I don't think can be replicated today. As Phil so interestingly said, Harmony Corine could try but I think he'd fail.

Plus I'd fucking hate for "One of us, one of us" to become some catchphrase even douchebags can place in context.

But that looks mostly like body modification retards. There's not the same sense of exploiting misfortune.

History Channel (of all places) occasionally runs a documentary on the freak show throughout American history. It's really fascinating, especially where it deals with the marginalization of the freaks. Already marginalized and treated like dirty secrets, they found notoriety and a sense of pride in the sideshow. Once the sideshows began to fall apart (in no small measure through political correctness), a lot of the freaks were forced back into the margins of society without the means to support themselves. It's really kind of sad.

Anyways, to end this quasi-derail, the documentary spends a decent portion of its running time discussing Freaks and its impact at the time it was released and the years since.

Very worthwhile watch.

That was a great doc! Recommend it to anyone if they can find it.

Society has TLC channel now. Any remake would be completely redundant.