01
Waxworks
Why this pick
Its fantastical episodes, angular sets, and looming figures extend Caligari’s theatrical German Expressionist nightmare imagery while keeping the storytelling brisk and macabre.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1920 1h 18m DEU
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
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CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, try these.
01
02
Nosferatu
Why this pick
For Caligari’s silent-era dread and distorted visual world, this offers stark shadows, uncanny performance, and an escalating sense that evil has entered ordinary life.
03
The Golem: How He Came into the World
Why this pick
A close contemporary of Caligari, it turns stylized architecture, ritualistic movement, and a storybook cityscape into a heavy, dreamlike vision of menace.
04
Warning Shadows
Why this pick
Its near-wordless psychological hallucination and expressive shadow play closely match Caligari’s unstable reality and fascination with perception, jealousy, and dread.
05
The Hands of Orlac
Why this pick
Robert Wiene again builds horror from a disturbed protagonist’s subjective fear, using severe lighting and mounting paranoia rather than straightforward monster-movie shocks.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
As Francis (Friedrich Fehér) sits on a bench with an older man who complains that spirits have driven him away from his family and home, a dazed woman named Jane (Lil Dagover) passes them. Francis explains she is his "fiancée" and that they have suffered a great ordeal. Most of the rest of the film is a Flashback (narrative) of Francis' story, which takes place in Holstenwall, a shadowy village of twisted buildings and spiraling streets. Francis and his friend Alan (Hans Heinz v. Twardowski), who are good-naturedly competing for Jane's affections, plan to visit the town fair. Meanwhile, a mysterious man named Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) seeks a permit from the rude town clerk to present a spectacle at the fair, which features a Sleepwalking named Cesare (Conrad Veidt). The clerk mocks and berates Dr. Caligari, but ultimately approves the permit. That night, the clerk is found stabbed to death in his bed.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Conrad Veidt
Cesare