Sunday, December 9, 2012

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari


When I first sat down to watch this film, I really was expecting a strong horror aspect to it. Of course, my horror aspect is based off of countless viewings of SAW and Halloween, so this film made me think of horror in a more artistic way. Since I was not able to hear anything besides the music, I had to become more engaged in the visuals themselves. What I noticed was that the sets and scenery were very sharp (literally, like triangles) and dream-like. In context of this being all a hallucination, it definitely helps create an unreal quality to the film. The sets are also imperfectly painted, which makes the eeriness of the actions seem even more peculiar. Everything seems extremely unrealistic, but if it were made to look very realistic, it wouldn’t create that sense of unease that is necessary for an audience that can focus only on the images right in front of them without assisting dialogue and sound. Once knowing the twist ending, the unnatural visuals themselves seemed to serve a larger purpose. This film was not frightening in the least, but definitely created tons of eeriness through its visuals alone.

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