Dr. Caligari (film)

This article is about the 1989 film. For other uses, see The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Dr. Caligari
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by	Stephen Sayadian
Produced by	Joseph F. Robertson
Written by	Stephen Sayadian Jerry Stahl
Starring	Madeleine Reynal
Music by	Mitchell Froom
Cinematography	Ladi von Jansky
Editing by	G. Martin Steiner
Distributed by	Manley Films
Running time	80 min
Country	United States
Language	English

Dr. Caligari is a 1989 cult film by Stephen Sayadian starring Madeleine Reynal, Laura Albert, Gene Zerna, David Parry and Jennifer Balgobin. The film details a disturbed doctor and her illegal experiments on her patients.

Originally, and briefly, billed as Dr. Caligari 3000 when it debuted at selected theaters in 1989, the film promptly faded into obscurity and was only released on VHS and limited Betamax formats as Dr. Caligari. The film was also released in America on Laserdisc by Image Home Entertainment. The Image laserdisc is, however, very rare, and is extremely expensive when found. The film is considered a cult classic and has been shown as a "Midnight Movie" at various times.

Production

The movie was filmed entirely inside of large studios in a bizarre landscape combination of both artificial outdoor and indoor scenes merged together. Windows and doors hang in mid-air against all black backgrounds. and vegetation grows inside of rooms. Much of this is done to give the audience an insight into the disturbed minds of both Dr. Caligari (Madeleine Reynall) and her patients. The overdramatic, stylistic acting is amusing and pokes fun at cliches and stereotypes and thus it has the film play out as an artistc performance piece rather than a standard film.

Critical reaction

Surprisingly, considering its outrageous approach, the film received excellent reviews in the mainstream press (LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, NY Post, Seattle Times, etc.) and was selected as an opening night feature at the Toronto Film Festival. Many fans of the film have cited both a strong David Lynch "feel" to the film as well as a touch of David Cronenberg's Videodrome. The scene where Mrs. Van Houten speaks to a glamorous image of herself on the T.V. clearly reminds one of Debbie Harry as Nicki in Videodrome licking her lips and enticing James Woods. Many of the special effects, such as the fleshy wall with open sores and a giant tongue, leave one feeling uneasy much in the way some people react to scenes in Lynch's films. Overall, the look of the film is an unmistakable product of the 1980s and represents a good juncture point to where film was heading at the end of the 80's.

Plot

The main plot involves Dr. Caligari's experiments with her patients at C.I.A (Caligari Insane Asylum) where she transfers glandular brain fluids from one patient to another. Two of her main patients, Mr. Pratt, a cannibalistic serial killer, and Mrs. Van Houten, a nymphomanical housewife, are the primary subjects of her mindswapping. Mrs. van Houten becomes the cannibal and Mr. Pratt the nymphomaniac; although, they seem to still retain some elements of themselves as well. Apparently Caligari's unconventional idea is to cure people by introducing equally opposite traits to balance out disturbed minds, but this is never implicitly stated in the film. Several other doctors, a married couple Mr & Mrs. Lodger, become concerned with Caligari's experiments and approach Mrs. Lodgers father Dr. Avol who confronts Caligari only to fall victim to her mindswapping and receives an injection of Mrs. Van Houtens fluid turning him into a transvestite nymphomaniac. Sex is a very prominent theme throughout the movie, especially for Mrs. Van Houten who appears topless and performs masturbation at several points, but there are no hard core graphic scenes as this was released as an R rated feature. By the end of the film Mrs. Van Houten has injected Dr. Caligari with her own nymphomanical fluid and herself with Caligari's ancestor's (the original Dr. Caligari from the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)thus the patient becomes the doctor, the doctor becomes the patient and the inmates are left running the asylum.

Availability

The film is considered collectible and can still be found in VHS or occasionally Laserdisc format on-line from auction sites such as E-bay and used copies are sometimes offered at Amazon.com.

Excalibur Films, despite mostly dealing with porn films, currently distributes this film on DVD. The reason is that Excalibur Films was formed by the film's executive producer.

References

External links

• Dr. Caligari at the Internet Movie Database
• Dr. Caligari at AllRovi
• Dr. Caligari page at Excalibur Films