365 Days. 365 Films.

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is a silent horror film from Germany and although it’s hardly scary by today’s standards, it was the leading horror film of its time and led to what we now know horror to be. This is something which I should have watched years ago but have coincidently managed to miss every single Film Studies lecture where it was screened (I believe the class were made to watch it about 4 times throughout my 5 years in studying Film). As with a lot of silent films, a great deal of patience is needed to thoroughly enjoy them, also an appreciation of what little facilities filmmakers had in them days helps too. The cinematography is beyond its years and the production is surprisingly decent for a German film, considering that Germany was hardly the forefront of cinema at the time.

Again, nowadays the plot seems basic and probably expected but at the time it was quite complex and probably had people glued to the screen. As a modern review, I therefore have to look at it in today’s terms – yes, it is an influential film for filmmakers and Film students and yes, it does achieve a great deal cinematically, but it’s incredibly boring to watch having been conditioned to accept nothing less than tremendous special effects and CGI… Poor Dr. Caligari…