10 Awesome Horror Movies Under 80 Minutes
2. The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
Robert Wiene's 1920 German Expressionist masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has had such a profound and continued impact upon cinema - and especially the horror genre - that it's basically impossible to list all the filmmakers who owe a debt to it.
The story revolves around a deranged hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who uses a somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) to commit murders in his name, but what truly still distinguishes Wiene's film over 100 years later is its mesmeric visual style.
With its angular sets and innovative use of shadow, it's a film that's influenced everything from F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu released just two years later, to basically every film noir movie ever made, Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, and so much beyond to this very day.
Even those without much patience for silent cinema should give 74 minutes of their life to Wiene, because this is such a visually rich meal of a film, and one that holds up so improbably well today.