#caligari carnival

[goryhorroor]

my top 30 favorite horror movies

[ferretastical-spectacle]

Finally got around to watching Re-animator check out the new phone screen

[peterlorres21stcentury]

All this recent talk of Caligari gave me a funny idea for a future story. I planned to set one of my Torg files in an early 1900s carnival, where Georg plays the role of carnival geek, and I thought it might be funny to sneak in a Cesare reference somewhere:

the carnival barker, berating Georg for his unholy appetite: "Dinner? DINNER? You brought in no money all day and you ask me for dinner. Even the somnambulist makes more money than you, and he sleeps 20 hours a day!"

Even if he doesn't play a role in the story, it amuses me to think that Caligari is lurking somewhere in this carnival of horrors.

[ven10]

Something about the Baudelaires+the tragedies they face being associated with fire (the fire that destroyed their home, the fire at the Caligari Carnival, the fire at the hotel Denouement…) vs the Quagmires+their tragedies being associated with water (Duncan+Isadora being kidnapped+stashed inside a statue of a fish then later inside of a fountain, the Baudelaires finding Quigley in the Hinterlands surrounded by ice, Quigley+Violet having a key moment on a frozen waterfall, Quigley+the Baudelaires escaping via said waterfall, Quigley being seperated from the Baudelaires by the Stricken Stream, Quigley sending a telegram to Violet whilst she is in a submarine fully submerged in water, the Baudelaires almost reuniting with Quigley after travelling in the depths of the sea in ‘The Grim Grotto’, in ‘The Penultimate Peril’ when it’s revealed that Duncan+Isadora are in danger of drowning as eagles attack their self-sustaining hot air mobile home which is flying over the sea and,of course, all three Quagmire triplets becoming lost (in the sea) to the great unknown.

This is especially evident in ‘The Vile Village’ when the Baudelaires have just rescued the Quagmires who at that point were “two dripping figures” bc of the “rushing water” of the fountain they were trapped in which is then contrasted, merely one paragraph later, by the man who causes the majority of the Baudelaires troubles brandishing fire, “Detective Dupin, holding a torch and heading straight toward the Baudelaire orphans.” [evidence taken from pages 210+211 of ‘The Vile Village’.]

This could represent a number of things:

1: The Quagmires trying to help the Baudelaires like how water extinguishes fire.

2: The cold way in which Olaf uses the Quagmires solely for their fortune and his own sadistic purpose as opposed to his hunting down of the Baudelaires being fuelled by burning revenge.

It’s also interesting how Duncan+Isadora are associated with water whereas Quigley is initially associated with ice in TSS until he+the Baudelaires begin to rely on each other and then he is associated with water (the ice of the stricken stream cracking and Quigley being carried away with it). Due to this, there is solid reasoning to view water in asoue as a metaphor for friendship (at least in the case of the Quagmires).

[brokehorrorfan]

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on October 22 via Kino Lorber. Known in its native German as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, the 1920 silent horror classic has been restored in 4K.

Robert Wiene directs from a script by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, and Rudolf Lettinger star.

Three audio options are included: 2024 orchestral score by Jeff Beal (House of Cards), 2014 orchestral score by Studio for Film Music at the University of Music Freiburg, and 2014 electronic score by DJ Spooky.

Read on for the special features.

Special features:

Audio commentary by composer Jeff Beal

Caligari: How Horror Came to the Cinema

Restoration Demonstration

A demented doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetrate a series of ghastly murders in a small community.

Pre-order The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: 1920s Horror

👻 You can support me on Ko-fi ❤️

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920 | Germany): a carnival somnambulist foretells death. ★★★★½

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920 | USA): a doctor transforms into his dark side. ★★★½

Körkarlen (1921 | Sweden): Death forces a man to revisit his sins. ★★★½

Häxan (1922 | Sweden): a documentary about witchcraft. ★★★½

The Headless Horseman (1922 | USA): a schoolteacher encounters the Headless Horseman. ★½

Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922 | Germany): a solicitor helps a mysterious count move to Germany. ★★★★★

Orlacs Hände (1924 | Austria): a pianist has his hands replaced with a murderer's. ★★★★½

The Monster (1925 | USA): a surgeon abducts people for his experiments. ★

The Phantom of the Opera (1925 | USA): a mysterious figure stalks an opera singer. ★★★★½

Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage (1926 | Germany): Mephisto tries to corrupt a good man. ★★★★

Der Student von Prag (1926 | Germany): a student makes a dark deal for success. ★★★

The Cat and the Canary (1927 | USA): the family of a millionaire gathers to read his will. ★★★★

La chute de la maison Usher (1928 | France): a man is obsessed with painting his sick wife. ★★★★

The Man Who Laughs (1928 | USA): a man with a permanent smile learns he is of noble birth. ★★★★

The Skeleton Dance (1929 | USA): skeletons rise from the grave to dance. ★★★★

[sixty-silver-wishes]

Hi my name is Cesare the somnambulist and I have been forced to kill people in my sleep by an evil psychologist (that’s how I got my name) and I have black hair and long skeletal fingers and a face like a corpse and icy blue eyes that stare into your soul and a lot of people tell me I look like Conrad Veidt (AN: if u don’t know who he is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Robert Weine but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m asleep all the time but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I can also see the future and I live in Holstenwall in Germany where I’m stuck in a box in a carnival sideshow (I’m twenty-three). I’m a goth (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I have one article of clothing and Caligari won't let me wear anything else. For example today I was wearing a black leotard with a turtleneck collar and white markings on it to resemble Expressionist art. I was wearing black lipstick, white greasepaint, and black eyeliner to make the circles under my eyes look even worse. I was in the carnival sideshow in Holstenwall. Caligari gave me more than two spoonfuls of porridge that day, which I was very happy about. Alan asked me when he was going to die. I put up my middle finger at him.

[kleinergeist]

Some TCODC headcanons/interpretations and stuff (Mostly Jane and Cesare)

(Warnings: mentions of abuse, including starvation)

- Jane and Francis both end up in the asylum after the events of the film. Caligari is still the director. Either he somehow framed someone else to maintain his position of power, or him being caught was the only part of the story made up by Francis. Idk, I'm still figuring out how to piece the two endings together.

- Jane's delusion of being a queen manifested as a response to her very limited control over her own life. It only really became noticeable to others after her attempted abduction. Her parents begrudgingly sent her to the asylum after it became impossible to hide. She doesn't remember her previous identity for the most part, but some days are better than others.

- Cesare survives collapsing from exhaustion. I'm still working out exactly how, but he eventually ends up back in the asylum, though under a different name. Without Caligari controlling him, he spends most of his time awake now. Meanwhile, Caligari is waiting for the opportunity to bring him back under his control without making the other doctors suspicious.

- Jane befriends Cesare in the asylum. Neither of them of them fully remember the other but have a vague feeling of having met before, as if in a dream. She appoints him as her "royal advisor." Together, they try to find out what happened before they arrived here (and what exactly the asylum director's deal is.)

- Poor Francis is having an awful time. He's the only one who knows who Caligari really is and the only one of his friends who remembers Alan's murder, and no one believes him. Having to see the man who (albeit unwillingly) killed his friend every day certainly isn't helping matters. Eventually, he hesitantly joins Jane and Cesare in their quest to find out what's really going on (and hopefully escape). He's still very suspicious of Cesare, though.

- Caligari enjoys touching Cesare (as seen at various points in the film). However, he dislikes feeding him or really anything that reminds him that he's a human being. He prefers to think of Cesare as a puppet without bodily needs or functions. For this reason, he tends to put off feeding him for as long as possible.

- Cesare, consequently, has an unusual relationship with food. He eats all kinds of inedible stuff when Caligari's back is turned; paper, bugs, his fingernails, splinters of wood from his box, really anything he can get his hands on. Someone at the carnival gave him a toffee apple once, and he ate it so quickly he got sick.

- Caligari has taught himself Italian (specifically a 18th century Northern dialect) and Latin. He's tried to teach these to Cesare too, with some degree of success. Sometimes while "predicting" a future at the carnival, Cesare will randomly start muttering in Latin.

- Caligari has collected a few different outfits for Cesare, including a black and white harlequin costume and a ghostly Victorian style nightshirt. He likes to play around with his hair and makeup, too.

- Cesare has a really hard time adjusting to normal (or relatively normal) life in the asylum. He's awake now, but he has no idea how to look after himself. He forgets to eat for long periods of time if nobody reminds him. His sleep pattern is irreversibly altered. Initially, he doesn't even know how to wash or dress himself.

- Gender, sexuality and romantic attraction are foreign concepts to Cesare. Jane doesn't really experience romantic attraction either, much to Francis's dismay.

- Jane hates being touched. So does Cesare most of the time, but he's kind of like a cat; if he randomly decides that he wants affection, he's holding your sleeve or resting his head on your shoulder and there's nothing you can do about it. Of course, he only does this with people that he trusts (i.e., Jane). It takes her some time to get used to it.

- Jane has a lot of empathy for animals considered unlikable by most. She's definitely been scolded by her parents before for catching a spider in her hands to release it outside.

- She also loves collecting stuff. Rocks, porcelain, bones, flowers, really anything that strikes her fancy. She hides a lot of her treasures in drawers and under her bed because her parents don't approve. The habit continues while she's in the asylum and is picked up by Cesare. They share and exchange trinkets like a pair of crows. The flowers Cesare is holding at the end of the film are a gift from Jane.

It's a bit messy (and poor Alan hardly gets a mention) but there it is. Maybe someday I'll write a story.

@sixty-silver-wishes :)

[felidrae]

Theory on Cesare’s redemption arc

Worthikids is a big fan of references & in Bigtop most notably it’s shown in the character Cesare.

If your unfamiliar he is based off the character Cesare, a hypnotized man who the Doctor (Dr. Caligari) claims to see the future, in “The Ballad of Dr. Caligari”. The silent horror film (made in Germany, 1920) is about two male friends Francis and Alen attending a Carnival where they encounter Dr. Caligari & his somnambulist Cesare. Alen asks the hypnosised man when he will die to which Cesare proclaims tomorrow, the next day Alen is found dead making Cesare the prime suspect & chaos ensues; It’s later revealed that Cesare doesn’t see the future but simply follows the orders of Dr.Caligari. The Zomburger Crew also have little Easter eggs regarding the film: Frances is Francis, Doctor is Alen(& his custome is a portray to Dr. Caligari) and Conrad is the name of Cesare’s actor Conrad Veidt.

Now you may ask, what does all this have to do with Cesare’s possible redemption? Interestingly enough if you look into the symbolism of the film it reveals hinted roots of Cesare’s character/story.

Cesare is arguably a solider, a nobody in a long line of nobody’s that’ll watch the World til the end of time & doesn’t question Upper Management as seen in “UP” (“I don’t control who they think is a menace”); When he is finished his position will be quickly replaced by someone else. His character arc, unlike his film counterpart, will be one where instead of mindlessly following orders he will revolt against his superiors.

However that now begs the question how will this happen?

Back to the Zomburger crew, their names having references to the film hints that they will also play a part in Cesare’s redemption arc. As I’ve stated before, Cesare has a hidden soft spot for the Zomburger crew, more so Doctor (Allen), though he denies it to even himself so there will be no strings attached & It’s already been shown that Doctor (Allen) is Cesare’s Morality Pet trope; unlike his film’s counterpart who is immediately killed off by film Cesare by the orders of Dr. Caligarli.

Cesare’s job is one where they watch over the Earth from “menaces” & presumably do not want them nor their mission to be known in the living public eye; now that 6 living humans know the existence of two SEPARATE entities as well as magic it’s not hard to consider that upper management wouldn’t be pleased keeping these loose ends alive. They are now menaces to the secrecy of the underground organization.

Prediction: Cesare will be ordered to cut off these loose ends himself or overhear someone else will do so; this will cause him to spiral into a moral crisis. He will realize he cannot follow/allow the order to go through & will most likely team up w/ Steve since his own crew will be in jeopardy also; freeing him from his cell.

This will correlate with how in the the film Cesare falls in love with Francis’s wife & is unable to follow through with his order to kill her- kidnapping her & running away until he’s too tired to run anymore.

[afterthegreatunknown]

sbg members headcanon regarding tattoos

has the tattoo because it was still a thing in vfd at the time:

monty (hides it with multi-colorful socks with snakes on them)

sally and gustav (hides it with neutral color socks)

snicket siblings (sometimes they hide it, sometimes they don't)

denouement triplets (pre-canon, dewey hides his with blue socks, ernest hides his with green socks, and frank dies his with red socks. by canon, they wear white socks)

josephine (hides it with dark color socks or tights. during canon, her long mourning dress helps also)

raymond 'q' quagmire (hides it with white or grey socks)

olaf (pre-opera night, he used to hide it with socks of different patterns and color combinations; he liked purple zigzags socks the most. post-opera night, he switched between white or black socks. learning the true players of the opera night had olaf forgoing socks)

beatrice (hides it with socks/tights or makeup; it depends on what she's wearing)

bertrand (hides it with socks or makeup; it depends on what he's wearing)

r (hides it with socks/tights or makeup; it depends on what she's wearing)

doesn't have tattoo for they were recruited after tattoo ban:

gregor and ike + hector (they were the first recruits to be taken after the tattoo ban. gregor would have gotten the tattoo if his parents didn't get him back [via ishmael helping out/owning d anwhistle a favor] after his first recruit lead to the real h anwhistle's death)

the future joan quagmire and her sisters alex and lindsey (they were recruited during high school because the triplets were nosy about a group of students)

esme (she got recruited in middle school because she got nosy over one of her teachers; her favorite teacher in fact)

fernald (lump sbg member born after tattoo ban; fernald for a time like the idea of having the tattoo, but by the present canon events fernald is GLAD that he doesn't)

doesn't have the tattoo, but should:

georgina orwell (doesn't see herself as part of the sbg; like that stop others saying she is. anyway, georgina when recruited did got the tattoo on her ankle. however, her parents managed to take her back during the schism, and georgina before her second recruitment removed her tattoo when she was studying to become an optometrist. the organization didn't bother to ask her to get the tattoo again on a different spot of her own free choice.)

miranda, n, and olivia (they were taken at a time when the tattoo wasn't ban. their mother having to take over caligari carnival so sudden over her brother's death -he was the previous owner- made a deal with the organization to give her children directly)

larry (was taken at the same time as r on account of getting pick up while r's recruiters snatch her up. no one really knows how larry got gloss over, but he's not complaining)

haruki [murakami] (was recruited at a time when the tattoo wasn't ban. however, the japanese branch of vfd play loose with the tattoo rules and allow exemptions if argue well. his parents won their argument)

shouldn't have the tattoo, but does:

widdershins (he joined after tattoo ban was enacted, and many saw his ankle tattoo free. as such, when his associates saw his tattooed ankle one summer day, it became a mystery that needed to be solve. hides it with navy or black shocks, or bandages he wrap around his ankle)

[goryhorroor]

“the face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.”

[cesare-das-wunder]

Dr. Caligari, you got any fans of your carnival show thing, like repeat visitors, etc? Ever considered selling merch?

(the mod actually does have one of those.)

[prodigaldaughteralice]

hiii thanks for rbing my horror recs post! sorry it took a while but here's your recs! :)

based on ginger snaps i'd recommend the lure (2015), the living dead girl (1982), stoker (2013), may (2002), bones and all (2022) and carrie (1976) about blood thirsty/outcast girls who want to be loved :(

based on the company of wolves i’d recommend gretel & hansel (2020), pan's labyrinth (2006), sleepy hollow (1999), the wolf house (2018), the witch (2015), hatching (2022), let the right one in (2008) and coraline (2009) because they're all beautifully dark fairy tales.

based on the cabinet of dr. caligari i'd recommend carnival of souls (1962), nosferatu (1922), dracula (1931), suspiria (1977 & 2018) and house on haunted hill (1959) based on their beautiful set pieces and atmosphere.

based on repo! the genetic opera i'd recommend the rocky horror picture show (1975), phantom of the paradise (1974), the lost boys (1987), beetlejuice (1988), near dark (1987) and the crow (1994) for their gothic visuals and antiviral (2012), dead ringers (1988), american mary (2012), rabid (2019), eyes without a face (1960) and crimes of the future (2022) for some of my fav surgery horrors.  

based on crimson peak i'd recommend the haunting (1963), the woman in black (2012), the others (2001), the orphanage (2007), vampyros lesbos (1971), alucarda (1977), the craft (1996), the first omen (2024) and the love witch (2016) for their beautifully haunting (gothic) visuals.

hope there's some you haven't seen yet! :)

Thank you so much for these! I’m sorry it took me so long to get to posting this but I’m really psyched— I’ve only seen nine of this whole long list! I have so much fun ahead of me, I can tell 👀

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

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★★★★½

Plot: When a carnival comes to town, its somnambulist begins predicting people's deaths.

Review: Tense, layered, and stylistically gorgeous, this movie's status as a cornerstone of horror cinema is more than deserved.

English Title: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Year: 1920 Genre: Psychological Horror Country: Germany Language: Silent Runtime: 1 hour 14 minutes

Director: Robert Wiene Writers: Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz Cinematographer: Willy Hameister Composer: Giuseppe Becce Cast: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Fehér, Lil Dagover

------

Story: 3/5 - While interesting and unpredictable, it grows somewhat muddled towards the end and falls into ableist tropes.

Performances: 4.5/5 - Krauss plays Dr. Caligari in the most delightfully maniacal way, and Veidt is unsettling as the clairvoyant Cesar.

Cinematography: 5/5 - Eerily beautiful, with unique framing and lighting. There isn't a single shot in this film that isn't striking.

Music: 4/5 - Wonderfully weird.

Sets: 5/5 - From the cityscapes to the carnival, all of the sets are distorted and angular, giving every shot an unsettling, dream-like quality.

Costumes, Hair, & Make-Up: 4/5 - Very solid. Dr. Caligari's outfit and make-up are iconic.

Trigger Warnings:

Mild violence

Ableism against mentally ill people (uncritical)

[sixty-silver-wishes]

wait wait wait FUCK

caligari is a psychologist. his career gives him the authority to administer diagnoses. he's the one with the societally accepted power to determine "sanity" vs "insanity," etc. BUT there's also something in the sense that to assign a diagnosis is to assign an aspect of someone else's identity in a clinical, authoritative way. by "becoming caligari," he defines his OWN IDENTITY by his ability to assign identities to other people. of course, he does this with cesare. their identities, assigned by caligari, are codependent (how can you be a dictator without any people to dictate?). but then you have his job as the asylum director. his ability to assign identities- to diagnose- is accepted by the entire town.

his whole carnival act is based around introducing cesare according to the identity he assigns him- note how his whole monologue is all about cesare and his "psychic abilities." the only time caligari refers to himself here is when he tells cesare, "it is your master, caligari." this is an expression of his identity- his role in the dynamic. who he "is," according to himself. of course, he's giving a performance in this scene. he's not just speaking to cesare; he's speaking to the audience. that's all he needs them to know about himself- that he is cesare's master.

[lyeekha]

ernest, 12, 13, 16, 21, 25!!

(character ask game)

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Like all the Denouements, he grew up working at Caligari Carnival, and out of the three of them took the most to sleight-of-hand (which he would refer to exclusively as legerdemain), and the accompanying streetperformer showmanship. Living there long enough also means he inevitably pick up bits of juggling, escapology, knife throwing etc just from people talking and swapping tricks, him more so than the other two due to being more interested in socialising and learning the trades.

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot?

🔪

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

I don't think there's any ships that are actually actively shipped that I don't like? I guess I'm not as massively into Ernest/Bertrand as the others but it's still very good. personal hc is 100% gay so any female ones dont work for me but I don't ever see that, so. I think I saw a Jacqueline one once but thats it

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

Private banter! Ernest talks with a priority of amusing himself over being fully understood (though not at the cost of getting the job done, if there is one, of course). He will choose turns of phrase that are a private joke, or a seed of a thought that is designed for you to only fully realise later, or slang with impenetrable implications that he does not remotely expect or intend you to pick up on. It's just for him. He's so bored of mundane communication and it's 90% of his day-to-day. And no, nothing that I don't like, every part of writing and directing the actor ernest denouement is a joy

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

First impression, non entity. This would be in the books which he's barely in on a first read, so. Contrasted to now which is Ernest Embodies Everything You Need To Know About Everything (But Wishes He Wasn't)