With all the big budget, heavily franchised stories of people with special powers (mutants, as they might uncharitably be called), it’s refreshing to see that it’s still possible to create a low budget, intimately crafted version of the same sort of story. Chloe (Lexy Kolker) is a young girl who lives with her father (Emile Hirsch) in a large, derelict house. This home is her entire world, as she is forbidden to set foot outside, her father desperate to protect her from some unseen external threat.
But she is a curious little girl, and when she breaks the rules just once, the revelations about her mysterious abilities and the ominous outside world come hard and fast. An ambitious science fiction story told on a purposefully small scale, Freaks impresses with the amount of world-building it accomplishes while largely set in one claustrophobic location and intensely focused on one little girl. The limitations placed on the film never constrict it, but instead allow it to put a fresh new spin on a familiar sci-fi tale. 
