This was great. It's incredibly creepy and fascinating to watch, especially for Tim Burton fans. One can clearly see that Edward Scissorhands draws a lot of its inspiration from this film. I'd highly recommend it.

A-

Just saw this in my Evolution of Film class. A very bold film for its time. It's really funny that when your younger you think the Wizard of Oz was the first big film with color. But after seeing the Great Train Robbery and Birth of a Nation color was around before that. But anyway I digress.

This film is trying to do a lot and has good atmosphere throughout with its use of Expressionism. And of course most likely the first twist ending. However, the music is annoying as hell, and doesnt match the film at all, thats most likely because the DVD I saw with it had a newly added score to it. For what it did for cinema it certainly gets a solid A. But you really need to be a hardcore fan of films to like it. A casual moviegoer would most likely hate it.

I disagree, gun. I thought the music was fucking tops. Maybe you watched a different print than I did? The music in mine was really bizarre and strange and fit perfectly. It even incorporated sound effects into it, which I thought was really innovative.

As for the film, I really dug it. Putting aside all the inherent concerns with silent films, I, at once, both enjoyed watching it and appreciated its vast influence. Not just on gothic auteurs like Burton, but also on pretty much every horror film of the past 80 years and every film with a twist ending. The style is simply fantastic. Wonderfully expressionist set design and a great use of makeup. Even the title cards added to the style, a refreshing change from other silent films I've seen. The narrative structure is incredibly influential and the brilliant twist at the end is even moreso. A true delight of a film and a must-see for anyone who loves dark, twisted, gothic fantasy horrors, as I do.

My teacher played it off VHS so maybe it is older. THere were no sound effects. My music was odd, which Im sure added to the expressionism, but I like music that flows with the narrative.

Well, my version was DVD, so I guess it was different. I really, really loved the music. And there was stuff like when Caligari opened Cesare's coffin, you could hear the doors creaking as part of the score.

I haven't got to see the entire film yet, but we watched a lot of it in class. I think analyzing it gave me a better appreciation for it than if I had just viewed it without. I haven't been exposed to many silent films, but I guess I've always had an inert prejudice against them. However, after seeing this and Birth of a Nation, I am looking forward to seeing some of the other great silents, the Chaplin ones especially.

A-

It has plenty of legitimate horror elements but the "twist" really throws off the film and I found it no more than unnecessary. Then again this specific kind of "twist" rarely works in horror.