A scrappy sensational sideshow revival act playing Seattle dive bars suddenly launches into the big time, riding the same wave that brought grunge rock crashing into mainstream culture. Circus of the Scars is a 95-minute micro-budget documentary that follows the infamous Jim Rose Circus Sideshow on a relentless and controversial world tour. Sold out audiences gape in horror and howl with laughter, but behind-the-scenes, inner struggles and battles with their maniacal hype master push the troupe ever closer to an early implosion.

Why did Slug the Sword Swallower choose to tattoo his entire body and become The Enigma? Why did the young Torture King stick pins into his arms in grade school? Why did the eccentric pharmacist from Montana leave his high-paying pharmacy job to have his stomach pumped nightly? And what inspired the Amazing Mister Lifto to lift two steam irons from the part of him that's most a Mister?