It was a dark and stormy night...

The storm of death hit Helsinki last night. In addition to rattling my apartment’s rickety windows, howling in the building’s airing ducts and forcing in an entirely unwelcome chill, it persuaded me to stay the hell inside and out of its way. Pulling on socks and fumbling with my ancient heater (to no avail) i instead contemplated ice cream and a scary movie.

Despite it really being way too cold, dark and stormy for either ice cream or a scary movie, i dug out the B&J’s (cookie dough flavour), got comfy on the couch and scrolled through my Itunes library for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari…

Dating back to 1920, the silent film in question is considered one of the first in the genre of horror movies and is an example of post WW1 German Expressionist cinema. Film studies facts aside (cause that’s about all i have, folks); I was interested in seeing this particular film because of its alleged influence on Tim Burton. 

Now i won’t give you a blow-by-blow account of the plot (but those of you who want one can find one here, cause the film really is worth seeing. I will, however, tell you what I thought. Watching black and white silent films often calls for patience on my part, cause being a kid raised on happy-coloured, sing-along, mainstream movies (i.e. the stuff of Disney), having the voice and colour sucked out of what I was watching seemed kinda like cheating when I was a kid. And kinda still does (hey I told you I ain’t no film student). Nonetheless, one must understand the grander cinematic milieu and era in which the film was produced and appreciate it in that context (black and white, yes. Silent, that too).

So I’ll give in, the mute and monochrome work. Further emphasising the mood, the painted backdrop’s jagged angles and the lengthy, flickering shots of ghoulishly masked actors enforce the sinister goings-on, contributing to the whole in a convincingly creepy way. I’ve always been one for stories, and this one was much to my liking. What I found most impressive was the way in which horror cinematised almost a century ago remains a compelling representative of the horror film genre and still manages to evoke chills in the contemporary viewer.

My eagerness to find Burton hiding in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari perhaps allowed me to find more parallels than really exist: Cesare the Somnambulist is easily identifiable as the doppelganger of Edward Scissorhands, while the town of Holstenwall looks a lot like the Victorian town in Corpse Bride, and the protagonist’s fiancée bears a striking resemblance to the Corpse Bride herself… The vision-impairing, mind-fuddling effects of a pint of B&J? I think not. See for yourself and we’ll talk.