Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, which I’m sure has a lot of you asking yourselves, “Where can I learn about the first horror movie ever made?” Lucky for you, that’s exactly what I’m talking about today!
Our movie for this week is 1920 German silent film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”. Do not run away because this is a silent film! There’s very little dialogue in the movie, and we don’t need a lot of dialogue to understand what’s happening in the story to begin with, so if you hate reading subtitles, do not fear.
The movie starts out with our main character and mental patient Francis, who is talking to an old visitor at the asylum. A girl walks by, and Francis tells him that her name is Jane and she is his fiancée. She walks by without looking at either of them. She’s in a flowing white dress and seems kind of ghost-like.
“I don’t know, man, she doesn’t seem that into you.”
Francis tells the old guy that they’ve both seen terrible horrors, and the movie shows the story that he tells in a flashback that lasts for almost the entire movie.
His story starts out when he and his friend Alan decide to go to a carnival. They come across a hypnotist who is gathering a crowd and telling them that he has a somnambulist (a sleepwalker) in his tent who has been asleep for 23 years and can tell people’s fortunes. Francis and Alan are intrigued, so they go in.
The somnambulist, whose name is Cesare, is sleeping in an upright coffin. He’s looking pretty spooky.
Then when the hypnotist, Caligari, wakes him up, he looks even creepier.
Alan is really fascinated with Cesare and he actually runs up on stage and asks him when he’ll die.
Cesare responds with, “At the break of dawn!” which causes Alan to freak out a little.
Alan and Francis leave and start talking about Jane, a girl both of them want to marry. They keep it pretty civil and do the whole “May the best man win” type of thing.
That night, Alan is just chilling, probably dreaming about his future life with Jane.
“I sure hope I don’t die at the break of dawn.”
Once he goes to sleep, you see a shadow approach him and murder him in the night!
Francis and Jane hear about this and find out that some other people have been murdered with the same type of weapon. Pretty soon after, the police catch the murderer in the act! However, when the man is questioned, he says he didn’t do any of the previous murders. Francis and Jane then become very suspicious of Dr. Caligari and Cesare.
Jane goes home and Francis goes to the place where Caligari keeps Cesare. Cesare is asleep in his coffin and Francis stays there and watches him to make sure no funny business is going on.
Meanwhile, we watch Cesare go to Jane’s house with a weapon. He’s been sent there to murder her because of her suspicions. However, once Cesare gets there, he cannot bring himself to hurt her because he is so taken aback by her beauty.
He touches her hair and she wakes up. Jane freaks out and he panics and grabs her. They struggle, and he ends up kidnapping her. Everyone else in the house wakes up and sees Cesare carrying her off. Cesare eventually puts her on the ground and runs away for a bit until he dies of exhaustion.
Francis meets back up with Jane and she tells him about Cesare. Francis says it’s impossible because he watched Cesare sleep in his coffin all night! Jane insists that it was Cesare, so Francis goes to the authorities and tells them the whole story. He goes with them to Caligari and Cesare’s tent. They bring the coffin out and Francis picks up the body inside and realizes that it’s a dummy! And now Francis feels like a dummy for watching a mannequin sleep all night.
Francis tries to track down Dr. Caligari and traces him back to a mental hospital. He asks the people working there if they have a patient by the name of Caligari, and they tell him no and suggest that he talk to the director of the institution.
Francis goes to the director’s office and finds out that the director is none other than DR. CALIGARI HIMSELF. What?! Talk about a PLOT TWIST.
That’s as far as I’m going to go, because this is only the first of many plot twists in this story. The truth starts to unravel and the ending is brilliant.
Some reasons why you should watch this movie:
1. All of the set pieces are made to exhibit German expressionism.
There are lots of crazy angles and it adds to the whole creepiness factor as well as just being really fascinating to look at.
There’s also men sitting on really tall stools in an uncomfortable fashion, which is entertaining.
2. There’s not a whole lot of dialogue in the film, which requires you to give your utmost attention to what is happening on the screen. This is also really easy, because you become so enraptured with what’s happening that you won’t want to take your eyes off the screen.
3. All of the inter-titles have unique formatting - - none of them have the same background. The inter-titles are basically artwork in and of themselves.
4. This movie is on Netflix Instant, so this movie is easily accessible. You could be watching it RIGHT NOW.
So what are you waiting for?! Go find out what happens next!