Kingdom of Shadows

This film provides a fascinating look at the silent era of Horror, luring you into its dark and shadowy domains. The vast almost immeasurable influence of these films upon the Horror, Science Fiction, Film Noir, Fantasy and even Mystery genres cannot be discounted and this film provides you with glimpses and details sure to convince you of the full worth of the films from this era. Narrated by the deep voiced Rod Steiger, along with the haunting music of Joseph Turrin, this film feels like an hidden canvas being uncovered before your very eyes..a journey within the worlds of silent era Horror itself!

This is a 1998 documentary narrated by Rod Steiger. Its subject is the development of horror cinema from the birth of film to the end of the silent era. The documentary includes some stunning imagery via film clips from Nosferatu, The Golem, Haxan, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Faust, Vampyr, and many others. It also features rarities like "Leaves from Satan's Book" and "Maciste in Hell.

The bad part of this documentary is the annoying narration. Steiger whispers and mumbles throughout and even does so during the playing of the film clips, which can be quite distracting. It also offers no historical perspective or much in the way of analysis.

A look back on the early, silent era in horror...

Another reviewer criticized this documentary for Rod Steiger's narration on two fronts -- one, because he says the narrator does little more than explain what is on the screen. And two, the "Bela Lugosi impression" he does. The second point is completely accurate -- why must he talk slow and in a weird accent (though it comes and goes)? That is not helpful in being educational for the viewer.

As for the first point, there is some accuracy in that. I found the documentary enjoyable, but would like to have known more about the creators -- Wiene, Dreyer, and others. We were really offered nothing in the way of biography or history.

The film goes into a bit of depth on "Leaves From Satan's Book" and examines the overlap of Satan, evil and religion. We see how in early years of film, the Inquisition was a popular theme, and therefore good and evil frequently were hard to tell apart. This could have been explored more...

I'm going to go ahead and give this the perfect score in part because I think the other posters really give it the short shift. Anyone curious about the subject matter will find this a great place to start.

I remember this being good and I gave it a second look when I was checking out something else in the Kino Collection boxed set. Indeed this might have been created in association with Kino as it hits on a lot of the films in their collection. It hits on a lot of stuff that isn't though.

Brent Wood's script is intriguing and intelligent. I know some of the.films very well, some not at all. His ideas are touched on just long enough not to bore, indeed, he probably had limited time to work with, those interested can do there own research.

I am going to see if a few of these films mentioned are online. In any event, I think they did a very good job with this. I wish more computer technology was used in restoring this stuff. They could make it all look like new, but I guess they won't until the expense is matched by a return.

Kingdom of Shadows (1998)

** (out of 4)

Extremely disappointing documentary that discusses the horror films of the silent era. Instead of trying to teach you anything director Bret Wood instead just has old movie clips playing with Rod Steiger narrating what's going on in them. To make matters worse, Steiger is giving some sort of Lugosi impersonation, which comes off really bad and makes it hard to understand what he's even saying. The documentary brings up how religion had an influence on horror entertaining cinema but they never dig into the subject. You get clips from the known films like Nosferatu but also some rarer Melies films and Griffith's The Avenging Conscience.