Last night I watched The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari for the first time. I've always enjoyed old movies. My Grandad is a bit of a film buff so my sister and I always ended up watching old black and white films when we stayed at their house. Together we worked our way through the majority of Hitchcock's work and pretty much every Humphrey Bogart film under the sun (my Gran's obsession). Despite this, I had only ever seen a handful of silent movies. Dr Caligari is often cited as being the first ever horror movie so of course I was immediately intrigued.
The film itself was very good. It had an ending very similar to Shutter Island (not sure if its appropriate to put spoiler warnings on an almost century old film!) which was a very interesting twist. Of course, the film wasn't scary by today's standards but I did find myself feeling genuinely disturbed by Dr. Caligari. I'm not sure if it was the quality of the old film but the actors face seemed to morph in an extremely horrifying way.
By Robert Wiene(Life time: n/a) - Original publication: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45636137
Another thing worth mentioning are the sets. The backdrop for the actors is twisted and sharp. It really enhances the feeling of madness and terror in the film.
Kommentare