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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ~ Film Review
Sometimes we lose track of the connection between film making and other forms of art. Today, horror movies seem so perfectly correct. So mechanic in their ability to provide proper lighting, anatomically correct bodies, and the perfect blood splatter to reveal the perfect crime. Frankly what was once innovative now seems drab. The perfect picture of a situation or feeling that is much more expressionist and imperfect in nature. That is what makes The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari so inviting, it is so different from what we are now used to.
The fact is that the unstable mind is nowhere near mechanic or perfect in nature. The doors are not square and the stairs don’t spiral up or down. Essentially, through every pair of eyes, something different is revealed. During the 1920’s in Germany, where The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was created, nothing was what it seemed. Coming off World War I, the German population as a whole was reeling from death and severe economic depression. The arts began to reflect the sentiment of soldiers and citizens realizing that the world is not a utopia. German Expressionism was essentially born, which brought along subsets of artistic movements, including Dadaism.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a silent German Expressionist film that exploits the advantages of this new artistic movement and adapts it for horror fans. The…
