Top Horror Films – #21 – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

October 11th, 2010 | POSTED BY Brandi Sperry

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920; directed by Robert Wiene; written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer

In a German mountain village, two young men, Francis and Alan, visit a traveling carnival and see the act of Dr. Caligari. The ‘doctor’ displays a bizarre statue of a man named Cesare, a somnambulist who he claims can tell the future. When Alan asks how long he has to live, Cesare tells him that he will die before morning—a prediction that turns true. Suspicions over Alan’s murder lead to a series of terrifying events for the village. This groundbreaking and hypnotic film helped to create the horror genre, and remains an incredible cinematic experience.

Allen: A strikingly strange and fascinating film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an achievement of the silent era. With its sharp angles, dramatic lighting, and non-realistic art design, the film has the look and feel of a living nightmare. The awkward and twisted style of the film became known as German Expressionism, and its influence can be seen from film noir to the French New Wave. It has inspired countless other films of today, such as Dark City, Shutter Island, or just about anything made by Tim Burton.

Mark: It’s often the case for me that films that revel in blood and gore are less scary than those pictures that focus on the complexities and unpredictability of the mind. In a German post-war intellectual climate of progression and experimentation, drawing towards anti-naturalist aesthetics, sumptuous and loaded sets combine with an enfolded narrative structure to create a chilling and complicated presentation of madness.

It’s interesting that the screenplay, written by Hanz Janowitz, a Czech poet, has a different structure and ending from the finished film. The screenplay ends by exposing the madness of authority: (a sane) Francis finds that Caligari, the traveling entertainer, is also the director of the mental hospital. Not to spoil the intricacies of the plot, I’ll just say that Fritz Lang encouraged the changes wrought.

Team Rankings:
Mark – #7
Brandi – #13
Allen – #17

Fritz Lang, German Expressionism, Horror, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari