Freaks / The Unknown / The Mystic: Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers - Blu-Ray | Criterion Collection

Step into the dark, twisted world of Tod Browning with Freaks / The Unknown / The Mystic: Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers. A pioneer of early Hollywood’s most daring and disturbing cinema, Browning drew from his own experiences as a circus performer to craft unsettling tales of outcasts, deception, and obsession. This collection brings together two of his most legendary works—The Unknown and Freaks—along with the long-unavailable rarity The Mystic. These pre-Code shockers explore the fringes of society with a mix of horror, empathy, and the grotesque, cementing Browning’s reputation as a master of the macabre.

Key Features

• New 2K digital restoration of Freaks, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on Blu-ray
• New 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of The Unknown by the George Eastman Museum, featuring a new score by composer Philip Carli
• New 2K digital restoration of The Mystic, featuring a new score by composer Dean Hurley
• Audio commentaries on Freaks and The Unknown, plus an introduction to The Mystic by film scholar David J. Skal
• New interview with author Megan Abbott on Tod Browning and pre-Code horror
• Archival documentary on Freaks
• Episode from 2019 of critic Kristen Lopez’s podcast Ticklish Business, discussing disability representation in Freaks
• Reading by David J. Skal of “Spurs,” the short story by Tod Robbins that inspired Freaks
• 1947 prologue added to Freaks
• Program on the alternate endings of Freaks
• Video gallery of portraits from Freaks
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme
• New cover art by Raphael Geroni

A landmark collection of early horror and exploitation cinema, Freaks / The Unknown / The Mystic presents Tod Browning’s most provocative works in stunning new restorations. This essential set is a must-have for fans of pre-Code Hollywood, classic horror, and the bizarre.