The 1920s was the golden age of silent horror cinema, and leading the way was the eerie German expressionist classic, the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
The 1920s was the golden age of silent horror cinema, and leading the way was the eerie German expressionist classic, the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Told from the point of the view of an inmate an insane asylum, the film is the story of the deranged Doctor Caligari and his faithful sleepwalking savant servant Ceasre, whom he keeps locked in a coffin-like cabinet.
Caligari, a travelling showman, arrives in town to perform at the local carnival. However, the doctor feels he is wronged by a number of the townspeople, so to exact his revenge he summons the slumbering Ceasre and orders him to kill.
While the 20s birthed a number of undeniable horror classics, such as Nosferatu (1922) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), it is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari that has come to the fore as not only one of the most significant horror movies ever made, but as one of the most significant films full stop.
The whole film has an unearthly feel. The scenery is distorted, with jagged, teetering buildings, with crooked windows and off centre doors, the characters all move with long sweeping exaggerated motions and carry ghoulish piercing expressions upon their faces, and throughout the whole film there is a haunting orchestral score.
Watching feels as if you are being sucked into a dream, one that only becomes more nightmarish as the film progresses.
This abstract nature is what has captured imaginations of movie-lovers for almost a century and influenced and inspired generations of filmmakers. The movie pushed the boundaries of what could be put to film, creating an entirely new world with painstaking attention to detail.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari comes from a time when film was purely a visual medium. Director Robert Wiene couldn’t simply rely on loud bangs and jump scares to get a fright out of his audience, instead the whole look of the picture had to be crafted to get under your skin.
While it may not be horrifying in the traditional sense, the film’s chilling, almost hypnotic atmosphere and strange visuals pull you in and make the whole experience more than a little unsettling. Maybe not one to feature on a Halloween horror marathon, but just dim the lights, sit back and appreciate it as that ominous feeling begins to tingle up your spine.
A creepy classic in every sense, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a turning point in the history of cinema and one that still holds up today.
Make sure to check in tomorrow as we jump into the thirties, the advent of sound film and the birth of the gothic chillier.
