The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari

Some site this as the first horror film ever made, it more than likely isn't, but it is still one of the finest. And although it's not the first horror, it very likely is the first film to feature the "twist ending".

So why should part of your Halloween marathon include a silent movie from 1919? I mean it can't be scary can it? To modern audiences, no, but if you allow yourself to be enveloped by its world it'll seriously get to you. The story is a pretty simple one. When a small German town holds its annual fair the main attraction is a weird man called Dr. Caligari who shows his ability to control a somnambulist. The sleep-walking freak predicts people will die that night and then they do. When one of those people is Francis' friend Alan Francis decides to take matters into his own hands.

Ho hum by today's standards. What makes Caligari so astonishing, even today, is its visual style. It is a film of artifice, with a style drawn from the German Expressionist movement of the time. Firstly it looks unrealistic, and this is deliberate. It looks like it is shot in a studio and that everything is painted. Rather than this being the result of it being low budget tat, it's like this by choice. The set design actively draws attention to how fake it looks. It wants you to enter the world of the film, one that looks similar to the real one but is just ever so slightly off. Beyond the fact it looks like a set, obviously influenced by theatrical productions of the time, is the fact that everything within it seems to be misshapen. Angles jut from all corners of the screen and everyday things are twisted and stretched into odd shapes and sizes, a perfect example being the town clerks ridiculously over-sized chair. he has to stoop to fit under the ceiling. What is great is that beyond this being merely cool looking the skewed sets actually tell the story of the film. The overall feeling is an ugly world, twisted and jagged. It looks as if it is created by a madman, or that the people who inhabit it have mutated it into something vile and dangerous. Within the big picture there are some fantastic little visual moments. The aforementioned chair tells us that the clerk is important but could also be read as a representation of the pomp and self aggrandising of people in these sorts of positions. The chair is ridiculous, but the clerk continues to sit in it as it raises him above everyone else. When the clerk is found murdered in his bedroom we are presented with the scene here to the right. He was stabbed, and the room's telling you that. The huge window appears as a knife's blade thrusting into the bed where the dead clerk lays, as if the world itself has murdered the man.

Now this is a spoiler so stop reading now and go watch it if you don't want it ruined for you but have been intrigued by what has been written.

The clerk has been murdered by the world. This is because the world is the creation of one character's insane mind, hence the way it looks. His murder has only happened because Francis has made it up. This is the twist I was talking about. A framing story was added by the director after the fact that reveals Francis to be in an insane asylum. He is telling his story to someone, but it becomes clear that all of the characters are based on fellow inmates and the story is in fact an old Italian tale he has read, but he has been unable to separate fact from fiction. And of course we're put in the same position. Is this a true story or a load of rubbish, the ramblings of a madman?

This is not to say that the story isn't intriguing. It's actually a very clever little story. And the acting is great too, in that over the top silent style. Here it really works though, especially for Caligari, who is all bluster and huge gestures, and Cesare, the somnambulist, who walks about with fluidity, almost in slow motion. He is genuinely creepy wandering about as if a dream creature, at one with his surroundings, no matter how bizarre.

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is a work of art. Not just as a visual feast. It is an important piece of filmmaking that has gone a long way to dictating many of the tenets of the horror. It is also massively important in the shaping of filmic storytelling, not just in the twist, but in the continuity style as well. It still influences filmmakers to this day, the most obvious being Tim Burton. Then there are the social readings which I won't go into here, but Caligari is seen as a key text in understanding post World War I Germany, and the feelings present that allowed the Nazis to gain power. In fact it is actually blamed in one of the most famous film critiques ever written; From Caligari to Hitler by Siegfried Kracauer. Whether you agree with the idea that a film can hold that level of power or not, it is an interesting read nonetheless. As much as it is a fine example of film as art and a damn important film, it's also great. It's a film that will get into your head and stay there, gnawing away at you. Think of it as the film version of Edvard Munch's The Scream. Another words, it's a perfect little horror film for your Halloween marathon.