ScienceKilledSilence Ah, what film could possibly surpass the wonders of the original Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? Not many, I can tell you that. The haunting Conrad Veidt, dazzling Lil Dagover, and just plain creepy Werner Krauss, brought life to this classic horror.It's a shame to see such beauty tarnished by a downright terrible remake.The dialogue seemed to be forced at the best of times, and the actors had no connection with the set, mainly because it wasn't there when they filmed. On top of all that the cast of this abomination lacked in both charm and appeal. They used awkward, jerky movements in a vain attempt to seem 'spooky'.When a film is remade it should at least express the same concept in a different way. This film failed to do that in anyway.

joshtanner First and foremost i love the original to bits, it was the first silent film i ever watched so you can imagine a feature length movie without dialogue was pretty strange to watch for me then.So what does a version with talking bring? Not really much at all. I was pretty pumped for this, the trailer didn't look all too bad and at first I was excited to hear that they were using the background from the original 35mm print.The backgrounds are composited pretty badly in a lot of scenes, especially my favorite shot of Cesare creeping along the wall, which Is a disaster and he doesn't look like he's touching the wall at all! (They should have built this set!) Doug Jones is a pretty good actor, but he doesn't even touch Veidts performance. He's just simply not scary, the terrifying shot where Cesare opens his eyes for the first time in the original film was severed here.The dialogue is really bad in a lot of places, sure its interesting to see it with dialogue if only for a minute, but comon! Overall id say average, it has a lot of faults but it also is pretty OK in some spots, the new shots are pretty cool. David Lee Fischer obviously didn't love this film enough to leave it THE HELL ALONE!

Adam_P_L First of all, I'd like to state unequivocally that I have nothing against remakes. Many people seem to feel that great films are "untouchable," and any attempt to remake them is tantamount to sacrilege. I don't feel this way at all. A remake can be nearly shot-by-shot (like Gus Van Sant's Psycho) or have a very different story (like Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead), and still--I think--stand on its own merits, be enjoyable if it is well-made, and do nothing to diminish the existence of the original. That said, David Lee Fisher's remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a very, very bad film. The dialogue is poorly written, the acting is amateurish, and the superimposing of actors over scenes from the original film is not well executed. I was really interested to see this film based on the premise--original scenes from the silent version were rendered by computer, allowing modern actors to move across the old silent film scenery, along with dialogue and music--but the final product is painful to watch. Even though a lot of effort clearly went into making this film, the actors simply do not meld with the background most of the time. The famous scene where Cesare slides along a long white wall now looks silly, because it's clear that he's not touching it, and the digital shadows that have been created simply do not look natural. Another problem is the dialogue. It adds nothing new to the film, except to make slightly more explicit things that were fairly obvious in the original. I saw this film in New York (at Two Boots Pioneer Theatre), and the screening was followed by a Q & A session with the director. He admitted that he's never been able to watch the original film at regular speed in his DVD player, and he always fast-forwards through it because he finds it "slow moving," and figured he could improve on it. I believed him when he said that he's never been able to sit through the original at regular speed, since he also seemed confused about some very basic plot points and themes of the original. I think to remake a film, you should actually have seen it a few times, and have something new or interesting to offer. Anyway, the only positive thing I can say about this film is that the actor who plays Dr. Caligari (Daamen Kraal) was pretty good in his role, and Doug Jones makes an effective Cesare. Unfortunately, everyone else involved in making the film (especially the director) left a lot to be desired.

chipthump27 This movie was excellent. The acting was great. Dr. Caligari was the best, I want to see him in more movies. I hope it wins at scream fest. Did anyone else see it? What did you think? I did not see the original but, now I want to. Daamen Krall is a superb actor, has anybody ever heard of him before. I took my boys to see it, and they loved it too. It was pretty creepy though. The man in the cabinet was spooky, the way his eyes looked. I was disappointed though that the only African American person in this movie was the first to be murdered. Why is it always the African Americans are murdered first? I liked how after the film, you could ask questions for the cast and crew of the film.