The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 German silent horror film that is widely regarded as a pioneering work of expressionist cinema. Directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, the movie is notable for its innovative visual style, intricate plot, and the enduring influence it has had on the development of the horror genre. This article will delve into the history of the film, its unique visual aesthetic, and its lasting impact on the world of cinema.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari I. The Making of a Masterpiece
The film’s origins can be traced back to the experiences of its writers, Janowitz and Mayer, who were both deeply affected by the horrors of World War I. Inspired by their shared distrust of authority and their fascination with the subconscious mind, they crafted a story that aimed to depict the dark side of human nature...
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari I. The Making of a Masterpiece
The film’s origins can be traced back to the experiences of its writers, Janowitz and Mayer, who were both deeply affected by the horrors of World War I. Inspired by their shared distrust of authority and their fascination with the subconscious mind, they crafted a story that aimed to depict the dark side of human nature...
- 5/1/2023
- by Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
The horror genre can feel overwhelming for some — it’s full of classics, sure, but also schlock-fests, perfectly average genre exercises and, frankly, more than a few extremely bad knock-offs. But if you’re looking to catch up the essential horror bona fides, we’ve got you covered. Below, we’ve put together a list of 25 horror classics that every serious film fan should see, providing a wide range of influential films from 1920 all the way up to 2017.
This is by no means a complete list — there are so many more great horror films to check out. But if you want an entry point to the best of the best, start here.
“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920) Decla-Film
Robert Weine’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” has been touted as the first true horror film that helped to shape the horror and film noir genre through its dark visual style.
This is by no means a complete list — there are so many more great horror films to check out. But if you want an entry point to the best of the best, start here.
“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920) Decla-Film
Robert Weine’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” has been touted as the first true horror film that helped to shape the horror and film noir genre through its dark visual style.
- 10/28/2022
- by Loree Seitz, Harper Lambert, Haleigh Foutch and Adam Chitwood
- The Wrap
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"
Where You Can Stream It: Shudder/AMC+
The Pitch: A man recounts the story of how a sleepwalker controlled by a mad doctor carried out murders in his village in this creepy 1920 classic.
German silent films: they've stood the test of time. Written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer and directed by Robert Weine, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" predates "Nosferatu" by two years and is one of the earliest works of German Expressionist cinema. Film critic Roger Ebert, spotlighting it as one of his "Great Movie" picks in 2009, wrote, "A case can be made that 'Caligari' was the first true horror film."
Told mostly in flashback, this 77-minute story unfolds like a demented dream,...
The Movie: "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"
Where You Can Stream It: Shudder/AMC+
The Pitch: A man recounts the story of how a sleepwalker controlled by a mad doctor carried out murders in his village in this creepy 1920 classic.
German silent films: they've stood the test of time. Written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer and directed by Robert Weine, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" predates "Nosferatu" by two years and is one of the earliest works of German Expressionist cinema. Film critic Roger Ebert, spotlighting it as one of his "Great Movie" picks in 2009, wrote, "A case can be made that 'Caligari' was the first true horror film."
Told mostly in flashback, this 77-minute story unfolds like a demented dream,...
- 9/27/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
Review by Roger Carpenter
Germany’s Weimar Republic era roughly coincided with America’s Roaring Twenties period. Beginning shortly after the end of Wwi, spanning the decade of the 1920’s, and extending into the early 1930’s Germany’s Weimar era was one of prosperity, decadence, and escapism. And just as American’s prosperous, libidinous decade would end in tragedy with Black Friday’s stock market crash and the beginning of The Great Depression, the Germans would see a tragedy of even more monumental proportions with the rise of Hitler and Nazism which would bring a screeching halt to the Weimar ideology.
The development of early German cinema corresponded with the Weimar era. With the return from the war of men who would pioneer German cinema, the decade is perhaps arguably the most creative and innovative in the history of world cinema. 1920’s German films are essentially synonymous with expressionism and...
Germany’s Weimar Republic era roughly coincided with America’s Roaring Twenties period. Beginning shortly after the end of Wwi, spanning the decade of the 1920’s, and extending into the early 1930’s Germany’s Weimar era was one of prosperity, decadence, and escapism. And just as American’s prosperous, libidinous decade would end in tragedy with Black Friday’s stock market crash and the beginning of The Great Depression, the Germans would see a tragedy of even more monumental proportions with the rise of Hitler and Nazism which would bring a screeching halt to the Weimar ideology.
The development of early German cinema corresponded with the Weimar era. With the return from the war of men who would pioneer German cinema, the decade is perhaps arguably the most creative and innovative in the history of world cinema. 1920’s German films are essentially synonymous with expressionism and...
- 1/22/2018
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Jim Knipfel Feb 26, 2019
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is almost a hundred years old, yet still casts a long shadow over all the genres it invented.
At its heart, is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari an anti-authoritarian call for rebellion, an object lesson in conformity, or an allegory about how we are all mere pawns lost in a culture gone completely mad? That’s up to you to decide. What’s interesting is that nearly a century after it was first released, the film’s backstory remains such a swirl of misinformation, conflicting memories, urban legends, shaky recordkeeping, and contradictory ego trips. It’s impossible to pin down any solid truth.
How the script originated, how the production went, who decided to tack on the framing story at the last minute, what the framing story means, who decided to go with the Expressionist design, and what sort of critical and...
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is almost a hundred years old, yet still casts a long shadow over all the genres it invented.
At its heart, is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari an anti-authoritarian call for rebellion, an object lesson in conformity, or an allegory about how we are all mere pawns lost in a culture gone completely mad? That’s up to you to decide. What’s interesting is that nearly a century after it was first released, the film’s backstory remains such a swirl of misinformation, conflicting memories, urban legends, shaky recordkeeping, and contradictory ego trips. It’s impossible to pin down any solid truth.
How the script originated, how the production went, who decided to tack on the framing story at the last minute, what the framing story means, who decided to go with the Expressionist design, and what sort of critical and...
- 2/24/2017
- Den of Geek
Special Mention: Un chien andalou
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel
France, 1929
Genre: Experimental Short
The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece. Buñuel famously said that he and Dalí wrote the film by telling one another their dreams. The film went on to influence the horror genre immensely. After all, even as manipulative as the “dream” device is, it’s still a proven way to jolt an audience. Just ask Wes Craven, who understood this bit of cinematic psychology when he dreamt of the central force behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film intended to be an exploration of surreal horror. David Lynch is contemporary cinema’s most devoted student of Un chien andalou – the severed ear at...
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel
France, 1929
Genre: Experimental Short
The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece. Buñuel famously said that he and Dalí wrote the film by telling one another their dreams. The film went on to influence the horror genre immensely. After all, even as manipulative as the “dream” device is, it’s still a proven way to jolt an audience. Just ask Wes Craven, who understood this bit of cinematic psychology when he dreamt of the central force behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film intended to be an exploration of surreal horror. David Lynch is contemporary cinema’s most devoted student of Un chien andalou – the severed ear at...
- 10/28/2015
- by Ricky Fernandes
- SoundOnSight
Kino Classics refurbishes Robert Weine’s 1920 landmark title The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the film that marked the birth of German Expressionism as well as the flagship of the horror film genre. Tempered by bookends meant to diminish interpretations of parallelism between insanity and authority, its stark, jagged angles and ingenious uses of shadows predates the dark beauty of film noir, featuring fantastic set designs that still rival the ability of contemporary film. Eerie, carnivalesque, and as arresting as ever, it’s a title worthy of this remastered revisit.
The story of Caligari, developed by Carl Mayer (responsible for Murnau’s Sunrise and The Last Laugh) and Hans Janowitz, is incredibly simple. Basically, the eponymous doctor happens to have control of a sleepwalker that does nefarious deeds for his master, namely murdering inhabitants of the small hamlet late at night. There is a slight twist to the proceedings, though it...
The story of Caligari, developed by Carl Mayer (responsible for Murnau’s Sunrise and The Last Laugh) and Hans Janowitz, is incredibly simple. Basically, the eponymous doctor happens to have control of a sleepwalker that does nefarious deeds for his master, namely murdering inhabitants of the small hamlet late at night. There is a slight twist to the proceedings, though it...
- 11/25/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Directed by Robert Wiene
Written by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz
Germany, 1920
In the period of Germany’s Weimar Republic, a unique and volatile pre- and post-war era within a window of less than 20 years, the German people were experiencing a torrent of new ideological, social, and political shifts. What was once traditional and normal was giving way to the modern and unusual. What was typically viewed as quintessentially German was now being inundated by outside influences, by strange and foreign people and their imported cultural baggage. Whether or not these elements were as directly and obviously portrayed in movies as some like Siegfreid Kracauer and Lotte Eisner would argue (quite convincingly in many ways), there can be little doubt that film was influenced to one degree or another by this state of the German populous. The times were surely changing, and in no film...
Directed by Robert Wiene
Written by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz
Germany, 1920
In the period of Germany’s Weimar Republic, a unique and volatile pre- and post-war era within a window of less than 20 years, the German people were experiencing a torrent of new ideological, social, and political shifts. What was once traditional and normal was giving way to the modern and unusual. What was typically viewed as quintessentially German was now being inundated by outside influences, by strange and foreign people and their imported cultural baggage. Whether or not these elements were as directly and obviously portrayed in movies as some like Siegfreid Kracauer and Lotte Eisner would argue (quite convincingly in many ways), there can be little doubt that film was influenced to one degree or another by this state of the German populous. The times were surely changing, and in no film...
- 11/22/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
In Robert Wiene’s 1920 dreamlike horror classic, veteran German actor Werner Krauss plays the mysterious Dr. Caligari, the apparent force behind a creepy somnambulist named Cesare and played by Conrad Veidt, who abducts beautiful Lil Dagover. The finale in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has inspired tons of movies and television shows, from Fritz Lang's 1944 film noir The Woman in the Window to the last episode of the TV series St. Elsewhere. In addition, the film shares some key elements in common (suppposedly as a result of a mere coincidence) with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's 2011 thriller Shutter Island. The 1920 crime melodrama Outside the Law is not in any way related to Rachid Bouchareb's 2010 political drama. Instead, the Tod Browning-directed movie is a well-made entry in the gangster genre (long before the explosion a decade later). Browning, best known for his early '30s efforts Dracula and Freaks,...
- 4/1/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The first in a series of articles in which I select my favourite horror movie from each of the last ten decades, providing some context and history and a look at (some) of the other great horrors of each. It is in no way meant to be a comprehensive history. Some articles are expanded upon from a list I wrote last year.
Few filmmakers in the first two decades of movie-making seemed explicitly interested in frightening the audience, though perhaps the audience soon let the filmmakers know what it craved. There is the famous story of the first screening of The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (1896), directed by the Lumière brothers, with reports of fleeing, terrified audience members as a train approached the screen. That this never actually happened is almost irrelevant; there is a reason some apocryphal tales persist.
One of the most often adapted horror texts of all time,...
Few filmmakers in the first two decades of movie-making seemed explicitly interested in frightening the audience, though perhaps the audience soon let the filmmakers know what it craved. There is the famous story of the first screening of The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (1896), directed by the Lumière brothers, with reports of fleeing, terrified audience members as a train approached the screen. That this never actually happened is almost irrelevant; there is a reason some apocryphal tales persist.
One of the most often adapted horror texts of all time,...
- 10/15/2011
- by Adam Whyte
- Obsessed with Film
Conrad Veidt is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" performer of the day. An international star since the 1920s, Veidt worked in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Hollywood — twice. [Conrad Veidt Movie Schedule.] In the late '20s, Veidt was the star of unusual Hollywood fare such as Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs (1928), in the title role as a man with a grin-like scar where his mouth should be, and Paul Fejos' The Last Performance (1929), as a magician in love with pretty Mary Philbin — a Universal star who also happened to be Veidt's leading lady in The Man Who Laughs. With the arrival of talking pictures, Veidt returned to Germany, but with the ascent of the Nazis he fled first to England and later to the United States. In the Hollywood of the early '40s, Veidt became everybody's favorite Nazi in movies such as Nazi Agent, Escape, and Casablanca.
- 8/24/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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