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The definition of "cinematography" has gotten looser in recent years. Film fans love to praise the way a movie looks -- especially lately, when movies often don't look that great! -- but in certain corners of online film spaces, "great cinematography" has started to mean "you can take a screencap and it'll look cool as a desktop wallpaper." The popular X account One Perfect Shot, for example, even spawned a TV series about cinematography, but for most of its existence, it didn't actually post shots; it posted frames. A "shot" is a length of film between cuts, often involving movement and change. "Cinematography," then, is more than just a succession of aesthetically pleasing frames. It involves all of the decisions that go into how an image is actually captured -- lighting, contrast, movement, and more.

The best directors and cinematographers maintain meticulous control over their images. That becomes especially important in horror films; in here,...

You know those moments when you feel something creeping behind you, but when you turn, there’s nothing there? That sense of “something’s wrong” that’s just hard to shake? Well, some films do just that—they get under your skin, like a slow burn that’ll leave you with that nagging sense of dread long after the credits roll. It’s not just about jump scares, folks; it’s about the kind of psychological disturbance that keeps you up at night, staring at your bedroom door, wondering if you locked it properly.

Maika Monroe, Lili Sepe, and Daniel Zovatto in It Follows (2014) | Credit: The Weinstein Company

These movies? They’ll make your mind a haunted house. The tension? It’s like someone’s whispering right behind you… but when you look, all you see is your own reflection. Yeah, it’s That kind of unsettling.

So grab your blanket,...

Roger Ebert was a film critic with the unique power to convey his passion for film to the masses. His enthusiasm was not blind, however, and he held the oft-maligned horror genre to an especially high standard. This list of the ten best films from Ebert's "Greatest Movies" collection illustrates his understanding of what makes a horror film a masterpiece.

Ebert believed that a horror film should "exorcise" something for the viewer — to help the audience process dark and traumatic feelings. Beginning with the German Expressionist revolution and reaching into the gory excesses of the 1970s and '80s, this wide-ranging list of films showcases the genre at its best. The critic's clear-eyed commentary on each picture will show fans why horror cinema will never die.

German Expressionism Helped Legitimize the Horror Genre The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary (1920), dir. Robert Wiene

Roger Ebert agreed with the common assertion that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari...

Quick Links Germany, the Original Masters of Horror Why the Greatest German Film Was a Curse The Party Comes to an End

Now in theaters, Robert Eggers' vampire film Nosferatu might be the weirdest Christmas release of all time. Behind the high-brow remake and IMAX presentation lies a rich and complicated history that defined the medium of film, and it's not pretty. Nosferatu marked the rise of the knock-off but, curiously, also announced the arrival of a worthy counterbalance to Hollywood's dominance of cinema. Self-destructing as quickly as it blossomed, the German Expressionist movement haunts filmmakers to this day. The glory days and demoralizing demise is a horror story all its own.

Torn between making personal art and paying the bills, German directors produced several stunning movies in just a dozen years. As with most great art, the bigger the obstacle, the better the final product. They specialized in macabre stories of madness,...

The annual To Save and Project festival has unveiled its 2025 lineup. Presented by the Museum of Modern Art and Chanel, the 21st annual event is the definitive international festival of film preservation. The latest edition is dedicated to celebrating newly preserved and restored films from archives, studios, distributors, foundations, and independent filmmakers from around the world.

The 2025 To Save and Project: The 21st MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation will take place from January 9 to January 30, and include more than 25 feature films and shorts programs in newly preserved or restored versions.

Frank Borzage’s “7th Heaven” (1927) will open the festival, as presented in a new upgrade from MoMA’s previous restoration. Charlie Chaplin’s 1918 World War I comedy “Shoulder Arms” will close the festival with a reconstruction of the seldom-seen original version presented as a work-in-progress.

Highlights also range from Yevgeny Chervyakov’s long-lost Soviet film “My Son (Moy Syn...

Subjective trauma becomes subaltern desire in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene’s proto-horror silent classic that’s justly, if mostly, celebrated for its Expressionist, practically vertiginous images. By focusing almost exclusively on its pioneering formalism, the more historical and socially neutral readings of the film, aside from the work of scholars Alexander Doty and Harry Benshoff, have lost sight of its thoroughly embedded queer narrative.

Cesare (Conrad Veidt) is a murderous somnambulist under Dr. Caligari’s (Werner Krauss) control. Cesare is first glimpsed, outside Caligari’s tent at the local carnival, as a life-sized drawing that makes a caricature of Veidt’s slender face, to the extent that his cheeks are exaggeratedly shrunken in, perpetuating an effeminate stereotype indicative of physiognomic depiction. Cesare’s actual face is first glimpsed in close up, eyes closed as he furrows his brow and slightly moves his lips. Once his eyes open,...

It’s a style of filmmaking that director David Lee Fisher refers to as a ‘remix’, and which he has previously exercised in reshaping Robert Wiene’s 1928 classic The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari: taking the original ‘backing track’ of a film – its set photography and storyline – and pasting in different actors, with new, spoken dialogue and occasional changes in the plot. Upon first consideration this is likely to make most film fans wince, but it does have artistic potential. Is it really so very different from restaging a classic play using elements from the original production? As long as everyone is properly credited, there’s no obvious moral objection. Of course, that doesn’t make it watchable.

As a rule, the best cover versions of songs are those that interpret them in ways very different from the originals. Artists’ attempts to cover the classics they love in a similar style are frequently.

Back in 2015, it was announced that The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers (who was, at that time, had only made The Witch) was planning to remake F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it Here). It took Eggers several years to get to Nosferatu, though, and we’ll finally have the chance to see his take on the concept when his movie reaches theatres on Wednesday, December 25th. About eight and half months after Eggers’ Nosferatu was first announced, we heard that filming had begun on a separate Nosferatu remake. Or, as the director referred to it, a remix. That was David Lee Fisher’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror… and that movie has now made its way out into the world! Fisher’s movie is available for purchase on Prime Video, going for the price of $4.99. It will also be released through Apple TV tomorrow,...

Two of the most popular horror films from the silent era are F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu from 1922 and director Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which was first released in 1920. So while Nosferatu gets a revival of sorts through Robert Eggers’ remake, which is set to reach theatres in December, and the Symphony of Horror “remix,” it seems fitting that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is also getting some loving attention this year, as Kino Lorber is set to give the film a 4K Uhd and Blu-ray release on October 22nd! This “authoritative edition” of the film features a meticulous 4K restoration by the F.W. Murnau Stiftung, along with a new orchestral score composed by Emmy winner Jeff Beal (House of Cards). Beal’s score had its premiere performance at Carnegie Hall on June 3rd… but if you want to try out the movie with different music,...

Serial killer movies have always been popular, since they speak to common fears, and the common fascination with the dark side of the human soul. Ever since the dawn of cinema, there have been crime movies. In fact, some of the most influential movies from a century ago deal with serial killers, showing the timeless appeal of these ideas. As movies have evolved over the years, there have always been serial killers on screen, just in different guises.

The changing faces of movie murderers over the years have reflected the filmmaking trends and societal attitudes of the time. Starting in the 1920s, serial killer movies were used as a way to explore the dehumanizing destruction of the First World War. Serial killers were later seen in screwball comedies of the 1940s, gritty detective dramas of the 1990s, and superhero movies of the 2020s. Throughout every period of film history, there...

Back in 2015, it was announced that The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers was planning to remake F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it Here). It took Eggers several years to get to Nosferatu, though, and we’ll finally have the chance to see his take on the concept when his movie reaches theatres on Wednesday, December 25th. About eight and half months after Eggers’ Nosferatu was first announced, we heard that filming had begun on a separate Nosferatu remake. Or, as the director referred to it, a remix. That was David Lee Fisher’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror… and we hadn’t heard anything about the movie since it started filming eight years ago. Until now. Our friends at Bloody Disgusting have learned that Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror will be released through Apple TV+ on October 18th!

Fisher has experience “remixing” silent classics.

A 30-minute filmed conversation between Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón and Australian writer-director Jennifer Kent will follow each screening of the 10th anniversary re-release of the latter’s cult, modern horror classic “The Babadook.”

In a recent masterclass at the Locarno Film Festival Cuarón had expressed his interest in exploring the horror genre and name-checked “The Babadook,” praising how the film is grounded in reality and character. Following this, IFC Films – which released Cuarón’s “Y Tu Mamá También” in 2002 – reached out to Cuarón to moderate an in-theaters-only Q&a with Kent, and their filmed 30-minute conversation will play in theaters following every screening across the U.S.

During the conversation, which is a cinephile’s delight, Cuarón says that when he watched the film for the first time, he was “absolutely impressed by the thematic approach,” and was also “impressed by how cinematically it was assured. It was like it was a very confident film.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on October 22 via Kino Lorber. The 1920 silent horror classic has been meticulously restored in 4K by the F. W. Murnau Foundation.

It includes a new orchestral score by Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal (House of Cards), along with an orchestral score by Studio for Film Music at the University of Music Freiburg and an electronic score by DJ Spooky, both from 2014.

Special Features include:

Audio commentary by composer Jeff Beal Caligari: How Horror Came to the Cinema Restoration Demonstration

In the film, a demented doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetrate a series of ghastly murders in a small community.

The quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema is directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, and Rudolf Lettinger star.

The post...

When one thinks of H.P. Lovecraft, his iconic short story "The Call of Cthulhu" immediately comes to mind. Much like his body of work, this tale has been considered a challenge to adapt to the silver screen, owing to the famed author's style that heavily relies on atmosphere, suspense, and cosmic and supernatural terrors that anchor on the unknown. However, in 2005, a low-budget silent film shattered the idea of the immortal story as unfilmable, providing one of the most faithful adaptations of his works, to the delight of horror aficionados, Lovecraft fans, and the movie-seeing public as a whole. Directed by Andrew Leman who also co-produced it with Sean Branney, and distributed by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, The Call of Cthulhu masterfully brings Lovecraft's writing to life through the conventions of an F.W. Murnau/Robert Wiene-esque monochromatic silent feature.

The silent movies of the past century offer a treasure trove of cinematic wonders across various genres like comedy, horror, and fantasy. Directors like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton created timeless classics that still resonate with contemporary viewers today. Early filmmakers like Georges Mlis and Robert Wiene paved the way for modern cinema with groundbreaking technical and narrative innovations.

The history of movies dates back to the late 1800s, and many films made over 100 years ago are still acclaimed and enjoyed by film lovers. Although many viewers may feel the black-and-white, silent era of movies to be an alienating sphere, those willing to delve into the far past will be rewarded with a treasure trove of cinematic wonders as engaging and enthralling as the best modern movies. This was a time of incredible experimentation, and the influence of the tremendous century-old films can still be seen in the work of contemporary actors,...

New York arthouse distributor Kino Lorber is expanding its streaming service, Kino Film Collection, currently available on Amazon Prime, to include a stand-alone SVOD which will feature hundreds of titles from its extensive back catalog, including features from the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos, Jia Zhangke, and Ken Loach.

Kino Lorber announced the new service timed to start of this year’s Cannes film festival. The stand-alone SVOD, available to subscribers for $5.99 a month, includes several Cannes highlights from years past, including Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters and Thien An Pham-directed drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, both winners of the Camera d’Or prize on the Croisette last year; Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, a 2019 competition title; and Palme d’Or winners Winter Sleep (2014) from Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Underground (1995) from Emir Kusturica.

“Cannes and the Kino Film Collection are so intertwined because we share a...

Night Shift: " While working her first night shift at a remote motel, a young woman, Gwen Taylor (Phoebe Tonkin), begins to suspect that she is being followed by a dangerous character from her past. As the night progresses, Gwen’s isolation and safety, however, are made all the more worse when she starts to realize that the motel might also be haunted."

Writer & Director: The China Brothers (Paul & Ben) Cast: Phoebe Tonkin, Lamorne Morris, Madison Hu, Patrick Fischler, Lauren Bowles, Christopher Denham. Producers: Eric B. Fleischman, Maurice Fadida, John Hodges, Bradley Pilz, Dennis Rainaldi Runtime: 82 minutes Rated: TV-ma Distributor: Quiver Distribution

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Queer Horror - A Film Guide: "From the beginning, horror has been part of the cinema landscape. Despite some of the earliest genre films with gay directors such as F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) and James Whale, Lgbtqia characters have rarely been portrayed in full view. For decades, filmmakers have...

The horror genre has evolved over time, with each decade delivering standout movies that push the boundaries of fear. Visionary directors have crafted masterpieces that capture horror's potential through technical innovation, cultural commentary, and bone-chilling style. These definitive films have an undefinable quality that cements their pole position, tower over their contemporaries, and continue to influence the genre today.

The horror genre has evolved over time, with each decade delivering some of cinema's most thrilling movies. While every decade has seen its share of remarkable films, there's one standout movie every 10 years that surpasses the rest. Since the earliest days of cinema, visionary directors have pushed the boundaries of what induces fear, from silent supernatural chillers to gory slasher flicks and psychological slow-burns. Horror has twisted perceptions, brought nightmares to life, and reinvented itself countless times over the past century.

Among the myriad of terrifying accomplishments, a select few singular...

Tim Burton loves to make things spooky and morbid, but his favorite holiday might well be Christmas. Look at how many of his films take place during the Yuletide season: "Batman Returns," "Edward Scissorhands," etc. He also conceived of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which is all about Halloween Town's top ghoul, Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon), getting Christmas fever. While Burton handed off directing duties of the stop-motion picture to Henry Selick, it's easy to see his fingerprints and why he would empathize with Jack.

David A. Bossert's "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Visual Companion" was released this year for the film's 30th anniversary. The book features interviews with the film's crew, from Selick to Art Director Kelly Asbury, where they describe forming the film's distinct visual style — since there were multiple holiday-themed dimensions, they couldn't stick to just one aesthetic.

For Halloween Town, though, they took after Burton's...

Film geeks, rejoice. Leading indie label Kino Lorber is entering the world of streaming. The company has launched Kino Film Collection, a new subscription video service available in the U.S. via’s Amazon’s Prime Video Channels. The Collection will feature new Kino releases fresh from theaters, along with hundreds of films from its expansive library of more than 4,000 titles, many now streaming for the first time. It will cost users $5.99 per month.

Films available at launch include award-winning theatrical releases and critically acclaimed festival favorites and classics from around the globe, such as The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci), Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos), Taxi (Jafar Panahi), Poison (Todd Haynes), Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn), The Scent of Green Papaya (Tran Anh Hung), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour), Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski), Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke), and A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke).

Joining them are entries...

Kino Lorber, a leading name in the indie film scene for over 45 years, just launched the Kino Film Collection. This new streaming service is available in the U.S. on Amazon via Prime Video Channels for $5.99 per month. The platform will feature new Kino films fresh from their theatrical release along with hundreds of catalog titles. Many of these films will be available to stream for the first time.

Among the films available will be a new 4K restoration of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” and key titles like Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi,” Todd Haynes’ “Poison,” and Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.”

Among the older titles available to stream will be classics like Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” and Sergei Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin.” The Kino Film Collection will be...

Independent film distributor Kino Lorber has officially unveiled streaming service Kino Film Collection, available via Prime Video here.

The Kino Film Collection will be launched in the U.S. on the Amazon Service via Prime Video Channels for $5.99 per month. The Collection will feature new Kino releases fresh from theaters, along with hundreds of films from its expansive library of more than 4,000 titles, with many now streaming for the first time.

New 4K restorations of films like Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi,” Todd Haynes’ “Poison,” Tran Anh Hung’s “The Scent of Green Papaya,” Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,” and Jia Zhangke’s “A Touch of Sin” are among highlights of the first offerings from Kino Film Collection.

Kino canon films like Fritz Lang’s historic “Metropolis,” F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,...

It’s hard to believe at first glance that the surreal Lovecraftian horrors of Messiah of Evil are courtesy of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who wrote both the warm nostalgia bath that is American Graffiti and the absurd comic book antics of Howard the Duck. But there are definite similarities between these films. American Graffiti and Messiah of Evil each capture a particular milieu at the end of an era, whether that’s provincial Modesto before the Beatles and Vietnam, or a beach town being overtaken by an evil cult. And Messiah of Evil and Howard the Duck both concern a cataclysmic threat from another realm.

Messiah of Evil focuses on Arletty (Marianna Hill), a young woman who’s come to Point Dune on the California coast looking for her famous artist father, Joseph Lang (Royal Dano). She soon makes the acquaintance of raffish Thom (Michael Greer), a nomadic...

Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is one of the most important films in the history of the medium. Not only is it a pillar of German Expressionism, but it is also widely credited as the movie that gave viewers the first twist ending in cinema. While turning an entire narrative on its head during the ending was nothing new in other forms of fiction, particularly in literature, presenting the technique in movies was quite the revolutionary maneuver. One can safely assume that its influence is far-reaching, with its imprints clearly visible in contemporary works such as Shutter Island, Gone Girl, and the majority of the catalog of M. Night Shyamalan. If you have not yet experienced cinema's first twist ending, then check it out before reading any further, as we can get right into it.

The advent of the horror genre was at a time when cinema was in its infancy, around the end of the 19th century, but some horror movies have withstood the test of time to be the scariest of all. With myriad popular, contemporary Gothic literature to draw its inspiration from – alongside a growing interest in the supernatural – horror was pioneered throughout the silent era by European filmmakers like Robert Wiene, F.W. Murnau, and Rupert Julian. The genre was revolutionized in the 1960s by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), which popularized psychological horror, while at the same time, low-budget indie horror flicks were on the rise, spearheaded by George A. Romero with his zombie film Night of the Living Dead (1968).

What was left of the 20th century saw a surge in popularity for the genre and increased Americanization. Slasher films with memorable villains became forever a part of popular culture, with new...

Do you remember your first horror movie? I do. I can remember how petrified I was like it was yesterday.

And I’ll never come close to a TV set broadcasting ants racing, thanks to Poltergeist. I’m still too terrified of being sucked in.

My little brother was terrified of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and would cry whenever his name was mentioned. And my son turned sheet white when he first saw Vanessa rip her face off in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

The point is that we’ve all been scared by something on TV or in theaters. Although, some of us seem to enjoy it more than others.

Related: Best Scary Clown Movies You Can Watch Right Now!

As horror fans, nothing compares to the thrill of a window blown open by the wind in complete darkness. Candles flickering out can make us shudder.

You’re no longer alone – behold!

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...

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster director Thomas Hamilton on his upcoming series Horror Icons on interviewing Roger Corman: “He not only worked with Vincent Price, he worked with Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney.” Photo: Thomas Hamilton

Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Conrad Veidt, Maria Ouspenskaya, George Zukor, Paul Wegener, Emil Jannings, Brigitte Helm, Gale Sondergaard, Gloria Holden, Claude Rains, Fay Wray, Duane Jones, Max Schreck, Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Lon Chaney Sr., Lon Chaney Jr, Fw Murnau’s Faust and Nosferatu, Arthur Lubin’s Phantom of the Opera, Rowland V. Lee’s Son of Frankenstein, George Waggner’s The Wolf Man, James Whale’s The Invisible Man, Lambert Hillyer’s Dracula’s Daughter, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen’s The Golem, Hanns Heinz Ewers and Stellan Rye’s The Student Of Prague, and George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead...

West of Zanzibar (1928) shows in Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning, running March 17 - 26, 2023, at Film at Lincoln Center in New York.Untitled (Fay Wray with Masks) (ca. 1928).He referred to them not as photographs but as pictures, akin to John Ford’s self-description as a “picture-maker.” This was not by accident or due to eccentricity, for there was a war happening among photographers. One party, represented best by Ansel Adams’s Group f/64, advocated a “pure” photography in which sharp focus and an eye for “realism” aided the photographer’s holy scientific task of capturing the immense object of reality. The other less-centralized party, sometimes called Pictorialists, chose to depict reality by representation and exaggeration. For William Mortensen, who lauded and exemplified the Pictorialist vision when it was most unfashionable, the camera was simply another artistic tool to be revered and used alongside graphite or clay. What mattered was...

No film of the Hays Code era revels in its own perversity quite like Mad Love (1935). Mad science, body horror, insanity, obsession, executions, gaslighting, sadomasochism—it’s all here and presented with unparalleled excellence of craft. Though it may seem tame compared to pre-Code fare like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Freaks, and Island of Lost Souls (both 1932), it manages to just barely sneak its lurid subject matter by the censors under a layer of dark humor, exceptional cinematography, and a masterful performance by Peter Lorre in his first American film.

After Dracula proved to be a huge success for Universal, other Hollywood studios became eager to get in on the horror game, though many of these studios felt the genre was beneath them. Metro Goldwyn Mayer was considered the most prestigious of the golden-age studios, famous for its big budget musicals, epic spectaculars, and boasting “more stars than there are in the heavens.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a silent German film from 1920, was completely innovative for its time and continues to influence filmmakers to this day. Emerging out of German Expressionism, a modernist movement in which reality was distorted for emotional effect, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari utilizes a set made of painted canvases positioned at improbable angles. Every element was crafted to bring about a feeling of threat and impending doom. It was the first movie to create a mindscape, a subjective psychological fantasy.

Many artists, such as horror movie pioneer Alfred Hitchcock and master of weird Tim Burton, have since been influenced by director Robert Wiene's masterpiece. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari told the story of Francis, Dr. Caligari, and Dr. Caligari's servant, Cesare. Dr. Caligari set up shop at a town fair with his somnambulist servant Cesare, who had been asleep for twenty-three years and yet could predict the future.

As a treatise on the relentless drive to secure power for the sheer purpose of seizing power, William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is unequalled in its recognition of the effects of the evil that men do in pursuit of this power. Denzel Washington stars as Lord Macbeth in Joel Coen’s masterful adaption of the timeless tale of political ambition thought to have been first performed in 1606 that remains as poignant and illuminating today as ever.

Seeking power, Lord Macbeth (Denzel Washington) – along with the aid of his conniving wife (Frances McDormand) – sets a plan in motion to seize control of the Scottish throne through a murderous plot that eventually plunges its perpetrators into madness.

Working without his brother Ethan, director Joel Coen crafts a masterful adaptation of one of the greatest tragedies ever created. Working from his own script, Coen shoots the film in an exquisite black and white provided by Bruno Delbonnel cinematography.

2021 poster for The Golem: How He Came into the World. Art by Johan Brosow.This gorgeous new poster for the 101 year old German expressionist silent film The Golem is the product of a lovely new endeavor by the Swedish distribution company NonStop Entertainment. In 2015 NonStop, perhaps the premier arthouse distributor in the Nordic region, launched a sister label, NonStop Timeless, to release their hundreds of repertory classics ranging from Dreyer to Lanthimos. Last year, in the early days of the pandemic, they decided to commission some of Sweden’s foremost artists, photographers, and designers to do their own take on a classic of their choice from the NonStop Timeless collection. The six artists selected chose seven films between them. The posters were printed in limited quantities on non-glossy paper in the Swedish cinema poster format of 70 x 100cm (very close to the US 27" x 40" standard) and were unveiled last week...

The Blazing World is trying—really, really trying. It knows a whole bunch of classics and clearly took more than a few notes from them. The starting point is straight out of Ordinary People. The production design is straight from Robert Wiene and Victor Sjöström. The score borders on plagiarizing that of The Shining a few times, and the main character is clearly named after Margaret Cavendish as if naming the film after her 1666 work wasn’t enough. Come to think of it, saying that Carlson Young’s feature debut is really trying is something of an understatement.

But while most bad movies are easy to dismiss, The Blazing World is a bit different. It’s easy to feel bad for how bad it is. Everyone involved here clearly wanted to make something great, to pour themselves onto the screen. Here, Young adapts her 2018 short film of the same name to 99 minutes,...

German cinema looks set for an exciting year with forthcoming works that include a high-profile Cannes selection celebrating one of Germany’s most iconic filmmakers, an expressionistic thriller set in 1920s Vienna, a tale of Nazi seduction and a new Thomas Mann adaptation.

The Covid-19 pandemic dashed the excitement of a splashy Cannes premiere for Oskar Roehler’s “Enfant Terrible,” part of the festival’s Official Selection, but the film is nevertheless certain to generate buzz with its portrayal of legendary filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and his turbulent film career that spanned 1969 to 1982.

In making the film, Roehler found inspiration in Fassbinder’s own work.

“We didn’t want to do your standard biopic,” says producer Markus Zimmer, managing director of Bavaria Filmproduktion. “I think we did come very close to what Fassbinder would have made out of his own life. We tried to be in line with the artistic...

The Head

DVD – Region 2 Only – No English Audio or Subtitles

Delta Music & Entert. GmbH & Co. Kg

1959 / 1.33:1 / 97 min.

Starring Michel Simon, Horst Frank, Karin Kernke

Cinematography by Georg Krause

Directed by Victor Trivas

A scientist who operates out of a starkly Modernist laboratory of glass and steel, Dr. Ood comes from a long line of German crackpots with a flair for the theatrical. Rotwang, the bug-eyed inventor of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, springs to mind along with Dr. Gogol, the lovelorn psychopath of Karl Freund’s Mad Love. And not to forget the omniscient Dr. Mabuse. Each man had style to burn and was obsessed with possessing desirable – and controllable – women.

The protagonist of Victor Trivas’s The Head, Ood was the most hands-on of the bunch, satisfying his lust by transplanting the head of a beautiful but misshapen doctor’s assistant to the body of a burlesque queen. Trivas...

A collection of 55 still photos from the 1919-1920 production of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” are now up for auction, courtesy of Sotheby’s. Robert Wiene’s silent horror film is widely considered the defining work of German Expressionist cinema and went on to inspire the look of such film classics as F. W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” and Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis.” Bids for the collection can be made through Friday, April 3 at 12pm Et. Sotheby’s estimates the photographs will sell between the $20,000 and $30,000 mark. The starting bid is $13,000.

The catalogue note reads: “This remarkable group of 55 photographs documents many of the psychologically and visually twisted scenes from the 1920 silent film ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,’ generally recognized as the first true horror film. Robert Wiene directed this tale of an insane, diabolical hypnotist who manipulates a somnambulist to execute a series of murders. Considered the first German Expressionist film,...

“You fools, this man is plotting our doom! We die at dawn! He is Caligari!”

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari will screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood) Thursday October 25th at 7:30pm. Austin, Texas’ most adventurous band, The Invincible Czars, will provide live music.The band encourages fans and attendees to dress for the Halloween season at these shows. Tickets are $12. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here

Considered by some to be the first horror film, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is thought by many film buffs to be the most influential of all silent films. With the Grandfather of all Twist-Endings, the film is the most brilliant example of that dark and twisted film movement known as German Expressionism, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is a plunge into the mind of insanity that severs all ties with the rational world. Director...

“You fools, this man is plotting our doom! We die at dawn! He is Caligari!”

The ‘Grave Tales’ Horror film series kicks off at Webster University Thursday January 17th with a screening of the groundbreaking silent classic The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari (1920). The screening will be at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). The movie starts at 7:30. A Facebook invite for the event can be found Here. Look for more coverage of the ‘Grave Tales’ Horror film series here at We Are Movie Geeks in the coming weeks.

Considered by some to be the first horror film, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is thought by many film buffs to be the most influential of all silent films. With the Grandfather of all Twist-Endings, the film is the most brilliant example of that dark and twisted film movement known as German Expressionism, The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is a...

By Jacob Oller

Director Robert Wiene explores inner and outer self in one of the first horror films. hen we think of psychological horror, we may be thrust into the debate between “true horror” and “psychological thriller”. That distinction is rather arbitrary and dismantles a genre built upon the psychology of self. One of the first horror films, […]

The article Opening the Mind-Bending Cabinet of Dr. Caligari appeared first on Film School Rejects.

We’ve covered plenty of obscure films available on iTunes in previous From VHS to VOD columns but Apple’s digital service is not the only VOD service making waves into the strange and obscure – there’s plenty of odd, unseen and unreleased (well unreleased on disc formats) films available on Amazon Video.

Unlike iTunes, a lot of the more obscure titles are only available for streaming rather than purchase, though the wide variety of films you don’t, and probably won’t see elsewhere makes up for that. Like iTunes there are some truly obscure films hidden away in the depths of Amazon’s vast collection of movies. Some of which have been made available in the UK for the first time since VHS and a Lot that have been added to the service in their original uncut form!

So, with that said here’s highlight some of the best (well,...

The most triumphed example of horror film expressionism is the 1920 feature The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari by Robert Wiene, which set the foundation from which all successive expressionist films and horror films of the 1920s would rise. Though the catalogue of expressionist works would number less than thirty throughout the movement’s existence, it had a profound and immediate impact on the world of cinematic storytelling. Many critics and audiences would agree the most important films of the expressionist era besides Calagari would be Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, both released in 1927. Though those two films are seminal works of filmmaking and objectively two of the greatest films ever created, their release and subsequent stardom overshadowed possibly...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Rumble Fish

Blu-ray

Criterion

1940 / B&W / 1:85 / Street Date April 25, 2017

Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane.

Cinematography: Stephen Burum

Film Editor: Barry Malkin

Written by S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola

Produced by Francis Ford Coppola

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Rumble Fish, Francis Ford Coppola’s Young Adult tone poem, unspools in a black and white never-never land of sullen teens, pool tables and pompadours. It may take a moment for the audience to suss out that we’re not in the Eisenhower era with Chuck Berry, Marilyn Monroe and the Cold War but squarely in Reagan’s domain of MTV, Madonna and the Cold War.

Set in a destitute Oklahoma town with the ghost of The Last Picture Show whistling through its empty streets, Matt Dillon plays Rusty, an inveterate gang-banger growing up in the shadow of his older brother played by Mickey Rourke, a reformed juvenile...

On this very gay day (4/24) in history as it relates to showbiz...

1873 Silent film director Robert Wiene, best known for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) born in Breslau (Note: other online sources disagree with the IMDb on this birthdate but it's always fun to think about Caligari)

1927 Oscar winning cinematographer Pasqualino de Santis born in Italy. Classics include Romeo and Juliet, The Damned, Death in Venice, and L'Argent

1930 Richard Donner, superstar director/producer of the 1980s, behind films like The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, and the first two Supermans. Apparently retired after 16 Blocks (2006) with Bruce Willis

1931 The Public Enemy starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow was enjoying its opening weekend at movie theaters. It was a big hit, ending in the top ten of its year. Variety claimed it was "low brow material" attempting to be high brow by its craftsmanship. If only critics knew in the moment -- they almost...

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...

One of our favourite distributors, Eureka! Entertainment, has announced its January slate of home releases, and as usual it boasts an eclectic and enticing range of diverse titles from around the world. Five new titles were announced, three of which will be part of their prestigious Masters of Cinema series. On 16 January, Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (spine no.92) will be re-issued in a limited edition 2-disc steelbook edition, now including Rüdiger Suchsland’s excellent 2014 documentary, From Caligari to Hitler: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses - well worth a double dip for those who already have the regular release. 23 January sees Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s fantastically unsettling Creepy arrive on dual-format Blu-ray and DVD. The director of Cure...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

One of my favorite things to do every October is to binge-watch as many horror and sci-fi movies as possible (something I can guarantee I’m not alone in doing), and for those of you with Netflix, the streaming service can be an invaluable resource this time of year, although I do remember a time when there were a lot more options than we get these days.

That being said, I culled Netflix's entire library and put together 31 great movie choices that will undoubtedly get you into a macabre mood to celebrate Halloween this year. Take a look at our Netflix list below, featuring one film for each day of October, and get ready to enjoy an entire month’s worth of fright-filled fun, courtesy of Netflix’s streaming database.

Creep (2014)

Looking for work, Aaron (Patrick Brice) comes across a cryptic online ad: “$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated.

Edgar Wright is a multifaceted director, writer and producer known for his films “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” among others. If you’ve ever wondered what movies he watches and what are his favorites, now you’re in luck!

Wright created a list of his 1,000 favorite films. Yes, one-thousand movies! The list, compiled by Mubi, is composed chronologically starting with Robert Wiene’s 1920 film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.” It’s unknown how long it took the filmmaker to create this catalog of classics, but it’s pretty interesting to see what’s on it.

The list has a variety of titles that would be a great place to start if you’re a film fanatic and want to do some research on classic cinema. It contains features from Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen and many other great helmers. The list ends with...

Scott Derrickson's films up to this point have mainly been in the horror genre; in addition to directing such box-office hits as "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," "Sinister" and "Deliver Us from Evil," he wrote the scripts the 2000 slasher sequel "Urban Legends: Final Cut" and the Pang Brothers' 2007 supernatural horror film "Messengers," among others. Which leads one to wonder: will the director's work on Marvel's "Doctor Strange" lead the McU in a more macabre direction than we've previously seen? Try to garner some clues, if you can, from Derrickson's picks for the 10 greatest horror films of all time, submitted to us as part of this month's Ultimate Horror Movie Poll, which ranked the 100 greatest horror films of all time based on votes sent in by more than 100 horror movie professionals. Will the comic book hero's feature-film debut give us a dash of surrealistic color, a la Dario Argento's most-heralded film?...

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...