10 Movies That Ripped Up The Rule Book

With more than a century behind us of cinema as arguably the predominant popular art form, the movies have naturally evolved along with the changing times.

That which was considered the standard when talking pictures first came to the forefront in the 1930s would almost certainly seem pretty far removed from everything we see today in the eyes of modern audiences. As the decades pass, artistic, technological and socio-political developments make their presence felt on the screen.

However, it's fair to say that such advances wouldn't be so keenly felt without specific films and filmmakers willing to take real chances, brush aside the conventions of the day, and make an effort to do things differently.

Audiences may at times be put off by movies which take such an approach (witness the fallout over Darren Aronofsky's flagrantly confrontational mother!), but surely any film that hopes to capture the attention of viewers everywhere has to have at least a hint of that risk-taking, rule-breaking, iconoclastic spirit.

It's just that only a small percentage of films that manage to reach a wide audience really embrace that spirit whole-heartedly.

Director Tod Browning is a key figure from the early days of cinema, most noted for his contributions to the horror genre. He directed the original, silent-era horror movie icon Lon Chaney in 1927's famously lost vampire film London After Midnight, before calling the shots on the first horror talkie, 1931's Dracula, with Bela Lugosi.

However, Browning's 1932 film Freaks took horror, and film overall, to a radically different place. Drawing both from Tod Robbins' short story Spurs and the director's own background in the circus, the film cast real sideshow 'freaks' as the principal cast.

This, in itself, was unnerving enough for most audiences at the time; but Freaks goes further yet by showing this oppressed underclass taking a very sinister revenge, when the circus's beautiful trapeze artist marries a dwarf for his money, whilst plotting with the strongman to murder her new husband and elope.

Deemed too shocking even before the introduction of the Hays Code, Freaks was cut by almost 30 minutes prior to release (footage which sadly remains lost today), yet even in its shortened form it was hugely controversial. It was banned in the UK for over 30 years, although it's rated 12A today.