'Freaks – You're One Of Us' Review: German Netflix movie is an unusual (super)human drama that questions normalcy
Spoilers for 'Freaks – You're One of Us'
First impressions of Netflix's latest German production 'Freaks - You're One of Us' is that it is an action, comedy, sci-fi superhero movie. But minutes into it, one realizes that it is not quite like the superhero movies that were used to watching on the screens. For one, it asks one main question: what is normal? Are you and I normal? If yes, then what is abnormal? In Cornelia Gröschel's Wendy's world, it is those with "superpowers".
We follow Wendy, a young unsuspecting working-class mom, who lives a tight, frugal life with her husband and son. She is like the billions of others on this planet who live quite ordinary, hard-working, bourgeois lifestyles. That is until she finds out that she is rather extraordinary. Marek (Wotan Wilke Möhring), a supposedly homeless man who lurches around the petrol station where Wendy works asks her to stop taking "those pills" she takes and it is only then that she will find out who she really is because she doesn't know it herself.
Soon enough, this true self begins to show herself and as it turns out, Wendy can send people flying in the air, can pick up those twice her size just by their collar, breaks into ATMs, bend bicycles into half, and whatnot. And she is not the only one - there are many others like her who have hidden powers. In fact, her colleague Elmar (Tim Oliver Schultz) is one of them. Elmar is Electro Man (quite self-explanatory), Marek is the invincible one and finally, Wendy is powerful.
But the audience is now about to find out that this is not a superhero trio - there is conspiracy hidden deep inside their pasts. This is a trio that is deemed unfit society. They have been given medications to suppress their true selves and well, forced into a mold that society and the so-called "normal people" perceive fit. What follows is Wendy, Marek and Elmar's quest to free all the people who are shut in a facility to supposedly protect them by themselves, but really protecting the world's "normal" majority from them.
'Freaks' is not a superhero movie. It is a movie about people like you and me who have incredible powers beyond their control. It's not a movie that is fighting for the greater good, with superhero characters who are battling between good and evil. 'Freaks - You're One of Us' is actually a movie about (super) human beings who struggle to survive in a world that has definitive definitions of normal.
While the trailer of the movie sufficiently incorporates humor, the movie is hardly so, not all that lighthearted but not all that gory either. There are some things about the storyline that seem far-fetched, in particular, Elmar's ambitions fraying from the trio and taking a turn for the worse. The action too is not something to brag about. If anything, characters are intentionally snatched away from action scenes to avoid confrontations. So don't expect a Marvel standard action sequence.
At a 93-minute runtime, 'Freaks - You're One of Us' is very much like other Netflix quick watches and doesn't disappoint at all. We must give brownie points to a soundtrack that gives homage to some of the 80s hits such as Roxette's 'Listen To Your Heart' or Cutting Crews 'I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight'. And while it might not be something to brag about, it sure sets a tone for the characters in the movie.
Gröschel shines as a down on luck woman who discovers she has unique powers and, by the end of the film, chooses to put them to use. How? Maybe there will be a sequel for the makers have kept the possibility open.
'Freaks - You're One of Us' aka 'Freaks: Du bist eine von uns' is currently streaming on Netflix.