Best movies like I Am Not a Freak

Six Shocking Stories You'll Never Forget

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like I Am Not a Freak Starring Mickey Hays, Peter Risch, Jack Elam, Yōko Ono, and more. If you liked I Am Not a Freak then you may also like: The Unknown, Wonder, Naughty Baby, Jeanne Eagels, The Outback and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

This film is a fascinating look at some people afflicted with congenital deformities of an extreme nature. Their ability to live with their aberrations while remaining socially involved and upbeat is truly inspirational. While their predecessors were often seen in so called "freak shows" that were part of various exhibitions from Coney Island to traveling circuses, these performers were actually the more fortunate ones in an era of little tolerance for those who were different from the accepted norm. Many became famous and extremely wealthy, such as Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton), who worked for many years with P.T. Barnum.

selected filters: Sort: Default

You may filter the list of movies on this page for a more refined, personalized selection of movies.

Still not sure what to watch click the recommend buttun below to get a movie recommendation selected from all the movies on this list

Know any good movies to watch like I Am Not a Freak 1987. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

The Unknown

A criminal on the run hides in a circus and seeks to possess the daughter of the ringmaster at any cost.

Wonder

The story of August Pullman – a boy with facial differences – who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.

Naughty Baby

A cloak room girl (Alice White) falls for a rich boy who may not actually be rich.

Jeanne Eagels

Biographical film based loosely on the life of 1920s stage star Jeanne Eagels.

The Outback

Being teased for his color, Johnny the white koala joins a traveling carnival with Hamish, a Tasmanian devil, and Higgens, a photographer monkey as talent agents. On the way through the Australian outback desert, the trailer they are in comes loose and crashes. Johnny must live up to the hero status Hamish presents him as while the outback locals try to rescue a kidnapped koala from Bog, a giant crocodile and his dingo lackeys.

The Chimp

Stan and Ollie play bumbling circus performers who inadvertently drive the circus into bankruptcy. The circus can't pay them their wages so they are given a gorilla and a flea circus as payment. Bedlam ensues.

Coney Island

Tammany Burke, young owner of a giant roller coaster, is fighting heavy odds against a syndicate led by financial baron Hughey Cooper. Assisted by his sweetheart, Joan, and her father, Jingles Wellman, formerly a clown, Burke prepares for a sabotage of his machine by syndicate hirelings. In the midst of a great battle the riot squad arrives to arrest the troublemakers, and Burke and his sweetheart are left in happy possession of their roller coaster.

Coney Island

Set at the turn of the century, smooth talking con man Eddie Johnson weasels his way into a job at friend and rival Joe Rocco's Coney Island night spot. Eddie meets the club's star attraction (and Joe's love interest), Kate Farley, a brash singer with a penchant for flashy clothes. Eddie and Kate argue as he tries to soften her image. Eventually, Kate becomes the toast of Coney Island and the two fall in love. Joe then tries to sabotage their marriage plans.

Coney Island Baby

After spending time in New York City, Billy Hayes returns to his Ireland hometown. He wants to get back together with his ex-girlfriend and take her to America in hopes of opening up a gas station. But everything isn't going Billy's way — the townspeople aren't happy to see him, and his ex-girlfriend is engaged and pregnant. Then, Billy runs into his old friends who are planning a scam.

Bleeders

A man with an unknown disease travels to an island with his girlfriend where his relatives once lived, hoping to find a cure to his illness. Although his relatives were all thought to be dead, he finds them living underground.

Freaks

A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.

The Shell Collector

The latest discovery by a blind shell collector puts the relationship between man and nature on edge: a rare mollusc that is extremely poisonous, but has a healing and hallucinogenic effect on some people. Can people resist the creature’s temptation, or will they put their lives at risk for a heavenly trip?

The Greatest Showman

The story of American showman P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Man on a Tightrope

Elia Kazan's 1953 film stars Fredric March as the owner of an impoverished circus in Communist-ruled Czechoslovokia who plots to flee across the border to freedom, taking his entire troupe of performers and wild animals with him. The cast also includes Gloria Grahame, Terry Moore, Cameron Mitchell, Richard Boone and Adolphe Menjou.

Tom Thumb

A boy, no bigger than a thumb, manages to outwit two thieves determined to make a fortune from him.

Circus Shadows

A phoney "psychic" ring tricks a pretty young circus performer into working for them.

Spell of the Circus

The manager of The Big Circus plots to marry the owner's daughter and gain control of the outfit.

Barnum

The amazing biography of legendary circus impresario and unparalleled showman, P.T. Barnum.

I'm Still Here

I'm Still Here is a portrayal of a tumultuous year in the life of actor Joaquin Phoenix. With remarkable access, the film follows the Oscar-nominee as he announces his retirement from a successful film career in the fall of 2008 and sets off to reinvent himself as a hip-hop musician. The film is a portrait of an artist at a crossroads and explores notions of courage and creative reinvention, as well as the ramifications of a life spent in the public eye.

Circus Girl

A jealous trapeze star decides he must eliminate his romantic rival.

Beware Spooks!

A bumbling detective chases an escaped convict in an amusement park haunted house in Coney Island.

Big Bob Johnson and His Fantastic Speed Circus

A stunt car racing team gets involved in a madcap cross-country auto race that is supposed to determine the disposition of a family fortune.

Barnum

Barnum the musical traces Phineas Taylor Barnum's career from 1835 to 1881 when he joined James A. Bailey to form the circus which was called The Greatest Show on Earth. Barnum is a defender of "the noble art of humbug" with a philosophy, and has a free wheeling ambition to make a fortune. He buys the oldest woman in the world, named Joyce Heath, as a sideshow attraction. Barnum builds a museum of curiosities supported by his wife Charity, who would like him to settle down.

A Lady's Morals

Romantic biography of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind and her famous affairs.

The Mighty Barnum

20th Century Fox's highly fabricated film biography of circus showman P. T. Barnum stars Wallace Beery (as Barnum), Virginia Bruce (as Jenny Lind), Janet Beecher and Adolphe Menjou. Released in 1934.

Paddy O'Day

A wealthy, eccentric collector of stuffed birds and a beautiful Russian singer provide refuge to an orphaned Irish child who has arrived illegally in New York.

We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song

We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song is a documentary which examines how the song was written, how producer Quincy Jones and songwriters Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie persuaded some of the most popular performers in America to donate their services to the project, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the marathon recording session that produced the single.

Lonely Island: Hidden Alcatraz

Its fame emanates from its role in housing the most notorious prisoners of an era, yet Alcatraz boasts a long and eclectic history. KQED explores it all in a walking tour of the island, beautifully taped in high-definition format. Host Greg Sherwood joins National Park Service ranger John Cantwell and other experts as they explore the ruins where Civil War soldiers protected California's gold from Confederate plots, see where Native Americans made a thrilling statement for self-determination and uncover much more of the island's surprising past.

Love Never Dies

Set 10 years later, the Phantom has escaped from Paris to New York where he lives amongst the joyrides and freak shows of Coney Island. He has finally found a place for his music to soar, all that is missing is his love Christine Daaé. In a bid to win back her love, the Phantom lures Christine, her husband Raoul, and their young son Gustave from Manhattan, to the glittering and glorious world of Coney Island... they have no idea what lies in store for them... You truly haven’t experienced Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies until you see this spectacular new Australian production, filmed at Melbourne’s iconic Regent Theatre.

Illusion

A vaudeville magician team is broken up when Carlee, an ex--circus performer, becomes infatuated with socialite Hilda Schmittlap. Meanwhile his vaudeville partner, Claire, has chosen a new partner, but her "heart isn't in it" because she is disconsolate over Carlee. Curious about her new act, Carlee attends a performance and sees Claire nearly killed when she fails to substitute fake bullets for real ones. Rushing to her aid, Carlee realizes how much Claire means to him.

Suicide Fleet

Three US sailors aboard a decoy ship fight German U-boats in World War I and try to win Sally who works on the Coney Island midway.

Freaks of Nature

Three people find that, despite their traumatic pasts, they are in possession of supernatural gifts that will change their lives and unite them.

The Third Degree

Alicia, a circus artist, deserts her husband and child to elope with Underwood, her handsome lover. Fifteen years later, Annie Martin, Alicia's deserted daughter, is a trapeze performer in a sideshow at Coney Island, operated by Mr. and Mrs. Chubb, and has married Howard Jeffries in spite of opposition by his wealthy parents. Jeffries, Sr., hires a man (Underwood) to separate the young couple. Underwood convinces the newlyweds that each is being unfaithful to the other, and consequently, he is threatened by Howard. Driven to fury by Underwood's uncontrollable demands, Alicia shoots him in a quarrel and makes her escape just as Howard enters; despite his innocence, Howard confesses to the crime when subjected to the third degree. Annie, realizing her mother's guilt, claims to be guilty, but Alicia then confesses. Annie is saved from suicide by Howard, and they are united by love.

Pink Tights

When a circus troupe comes to a small, extremely conservative New England town, the residents go to their minister to have him protest the scandalous fact that the female tightrope walker wears a pair of pink tights. When she has an accident and is forced to recuperate at the minister's house, he has to hide her in order to avoid even more of a scandal. Mazie Darton, a high-wire performer with a traveling circus, longs for a peaceful country life. Forced to stay in a small town while laid up with an injury, Darton is spurned by the conservative townspeople. Rev. Jonathon Meek, the local parson, befriends the circus troupe, especially Darton. But he, too, opens himself to criticism from his flock, who protest his closeness with the show people. Eventually, Darton's boyfriend arrives and the pair become closer. The parson fades from the scene as a possible mate for Darton, who ends up winning the hearts of the townspeople.

More related lists

Sort results by:

X close
Default
Clear filters
...