Horror from 1910s: Any Better?
For those who don't know, Absinthe and I are going through a spreadsheet of horror films sorted by year. With each decade (or half-decade soon), I write a blog post here, summarizing and partially reviewing the films and sharing our favorites with you!
The 1910s finally started to get away from the slapstick / vaudeville of the 1890s and 1900s. Some of these were genuinely a bit creepy, too!
We started with the 1910 Frankenstein. This was fucking bizarre. Before the Universal Frankenstein's Monster, this one existed, and he looks more like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Long hands, long hair, slouched posture. He does not lumber or dress nice here. It was a fairly short film, so it was interesting seeing how people perceived of this Frankenstein's Monster.
Next, we actually did watch the 1911 Hunchback of Notre Dame! He definitely looks more grotesque than the later Disney film would portray him. So, I haven't even read Hugo's novel yet, so I literally only knew the Disney version. That's all I have for comparison really. It was interesting to me that Judge Claude Frollo combined with the religious figure in the cathedral as one character. Quasimodo himself helped the archdeacon to kidnap Esmerelda. The film itself was fairly dry, but the costume design was on point.
We ended up retroactively going back to 1911 this past week to see L'Inferno, an Italian "horror" film based on Dante's own work. The film was not too long, but it was fascinating to see how accurate it was to the original work. Even in the American version, it kept a lot of the political ideas from the original, and it was fairly creepy to see all the demons. Of course, it censored a lot of the grosser and harsher details of the various tortures. Still worth a skimming view.
Next was the 1912 Jekyll and Hyde. This was much better than the version we saw in the previous decade. It was truer to the book and had a lot more depth in it. It was super moralistic and religious, too, definitely moreso than the Stevenson novella. Even with the expansions, it was really hard to pay attention to this one. It had such slow pacing, and it was hard to get through.
The 1914 Avenging Conscience was next. Ya'll. This movie was fucked. It's supposedly a mix of "Tell-Tale Heart" and "Annabel Lee." Basically, it's about a guy who decides to murder his uncle for forbidding him from quitting his job to go out with a random lady he met, and the murder weighs on him. But...BUT. It transforms genre so fucking much. It starts out as drama, then moves on to romance, then nature documentary, then thriller, then a racist Western shootout, and Christian propaganda film? Bizarre as fuck.
Then, we watched Unheimlich Geshichten from 1919. So, in English, this is roughly, "Eerie Tales," but I prefer the word "Uncanny." Fun little trivia. Freud really conceptualized the uncanny back then, especially when he was lost in a redlight district. The "uncanny" has, therefore, always had an implication with sex and prostitution. It makes sense, then, that the three narrators of Unheimlich are Death, the Devil, and the Prostitute. They lead us through five spooky tales. In each one, the three narrators' actors play the three major characters, even when they shift in each story. The first story "The Apparition" is about a plague, a hotel, and a coverup. Kind of eerie. Pretty fun though. "The Hand" had a violent murder, but then it just got weird. "The Black Cat," based on a Poe story, was delicious and delightful. Did the original story justice. Fourth was "The Suicide Club," based on a Stevenson story, and this was easily Absinthe's and my favorite of the film. A great game horror piece. "The Spectre" at the end was a weird ghost story about cheating? It was odd. Overall, a great film.
The final film from 1919 was Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This actually had a similar major actor as the last film, Conrad Veidt. It was a great film, and we really got to see German expressionism appearing here. A lot of Tim Burton-style aesthetics in other words. Supposedly, the film is based on real experiences, but it was super hard to follow. The plot was all over the place, and the setting just doesn't even make sense. But it was still one of the more enjoyable works from the decade.
When it came to favorites, Absinthe and I both agreed: Unheimlich Geschichten was our favorite. We both love anthology films, and it was fun seeing the same actors take on different roles throughout the film. Veidt nailed being creepy, and the stories tackled different kinds of creepy. If we had to recommend one film for you to watch, it'd be that one.
Comment question of the day: What is your favorite representation of Frankenstein's monster and why?
The 1910s finally started to get away from the slapstick / vaudeville of the 1890s and 1900s. Some of these were genuinely a bit creepy, too!
We started with the 1910 Frankenstein. This was fucking bizarre. Before the Universal Frankenstein's Monster, this one existed, and he looks more like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Long hands, long hair, slouched posture. He does not lumber or dress nice here. It was a fairly short film, so it was interesting seeing how people perceived of this Frankenstein's Monster.
Next, we actually did watch the 1911 Hunchback of Notre Dame! He definitely looks more grotesque than the later Disney film would portray him. So, I haven't even read Hugo's novel yet, so I literally only knew the Disney version. That's all I have for comparison really. It was interesting to me that Judge Claude Frollo combined with the religious figure in the cathedral as one character. Quasimodo himself helped the archdeacon to kidnap Esmerelda. The film itself was fairly dry, but the costume design was on point.
We ended up retroactively going back to 1911 this past week to see L'Inferno, an Italian "horror" film based on Dante's own work. The film was not too long, but it was fascinating to see how accurate it was to the original work. Even in the American version, it kept a lot of the political ideas from the original, and it was fairly creepy to see all the demons. Of course, it censored a lot of the grosser and harsher details of the various tortures. Still worth a skimming view.
Next was the 1912 Jekyll and Hyde. This was much better than the version we saw in the previous decade. It was truer to the book and had a lot more depth in it. It was super moralistic and religious, too, definitely moreso than the Stevenson novella. Even with the expansions, it was really hard to pay attention to this one. It had such slow pacing, and it was hard to get through.
The 1914 Avenging Conscience was next. Ya'll. This movie was fucked. It's supposedly a mix of "Tell-Tale Heart" and "Annabel Lee." Basically, it's about a guy who decides to murder his uncle for forbidding him from quitting his job to go out with a random lady he met, and the murder weighs on him. But...BUT. It transforms genre so fucking much. It starts out as drama, then moves on to romance, then nature documentary, then thriller, then a racist Western shootout, and Christian propaganda film? Bizarre as fuck.
Then, we watched Unheimlich Geshichten from 1919. So, in English, this is roughly, "Eerie Tales," but I prefer the word "Uncanny." Fun little trivia. Freud really conceptualized the uncanny back then, especially when he was lost in a redlight district. The "uncanny" has, therefore, always had an implication with sex and prostitution. It makes sense, then, that the three narrators of Unheimlich are Death, the Devil, and the Prostitute. They lead us through five spooky tales. In each one, the three narrators' actors play the three major characters, even when they shift in each story. The first story "The Apparition" is about a plague, a hotel, and a coverup. Kind of eerie. Pretty fun though. "The Hand" had a violent murder, but then it just got weird. "The Black Cat," based on a Poe story, was delicious and delightful. Did the original story justice. Fourth was "The Suicide Club," based on a Stevenson story, and this was easily Absinthe's and my favorite of the film. A great game horror piece. "The Spectre" at the end was a weird ghost story about cheating? It was odd. Overall, a great film.
The final film from 1919 was Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This actually had a similar major actor as the last film, Conrad Veidt. It was a great film, and we really got to see German expressionism appearing here. A lot of Tim Burton-style aesthetics in other words. Supposedly, the film is based on real experiences, but it was super hard to follow. The plot was all over the place, and the setting just doesn't even make sense. But it was still one of the more enjoyable works from the decade.
When it came to favorites, Absinthe and I both agreed: Unheimlich Geschichten was our favorite. We both love anthology films, and it was fun seeing the same actors take on different roles throughout the film. Veidt nailed being creepy, and the stories tackled different kinds of creepy. If we had to recommend one film for you to watch, it'd be that one.
Comment question of the day: What is your favorite representation of Frankenstein's monster and why?
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