Tag: 1920s
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Hooptober 12.0 – The Man Who Laughs (1928)
Being Film #26 for Hooptober 2025 I was trying to write this introduction when I realized that the sentence I was trying to create was immortal. That’s right: it can live forever, applied to whenever and still make sense. The sentence? Oh, “With all the advancements technology has afforded cinema in the last…” I stopped…
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Hooptober 11.0 – The Hands Of Orlac (1924)
Being Film #25 for Hooptober 2024 I can imagine The Hands Of Orlac must have been a potboiler at its time of release in 1920s Germany. Director Robert Wiene adapts Maurice Renard’s novel wonderfully, showing a real sense of narrative and the dramatic in his depiction of a by now well-trod story. And for me…
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Hooptober 10.0 – Häxan (1922)
Being Film #19 for Hooptober 2023 How about a very short review for something that isn’t necessarily horror, but utilizes horror imagery in a way that would be imitated for decades? Häxan is a silent essay film on the history of witchcraft and devil worship written and directed by Benjamin Christensen, who uses a variety…
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Hooptober 2022 #38: Nosferatu (1922)
One of the questions all horror fans and studios ask is “What’s the scariest movie ever made?” A question like that kind of serves no purpose. Fear is such a subjective thing. What terrifies or chills one person might be blasé to another. Rarely do films touted as “the scariest film in years” last past…
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Hooptober 2022 #37: Faust (1926)
Midway through watching F.W. Murnau’s silent classic Faust, I asked myself “Is this really a horror movie?” It feels like a stretch to do so. The film is undoubtedly a masterpiece of German Expressionism. Murnau, clearly in command of his craft, fills every frame of the film with astonishing images. There is horror and horror…