10 Most Twisted Asylum Horror Movies

6. The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari

The Ward Amber Heard
Decla-Bioscop

Without any sense of hyperbole, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the most influential movies in the history in cinema.

Viewed as one of the first genuinely great films, Robert Wiene's 1920 silent horror offering has Friedrich Fehér's Francis investigating a batch of murders that he believes are being ordered and masterminded by the titular Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss).

Caligari is depicted as the head of a travelling fair, with Francis believing the doctor is somehow having somnambulist Cesare unknowingly carry out the aforementioned killings. In the first big twist in the tale, Francis discovers that Caligari is actually the director of an insane asylum.

With the police soon on the scene and Dr. Caligari tied up in a straitjacket, the even bigger twist here is that Francis has imagined this whole thing. In reality, Francis is actually a patient at a mental asylum run by an unnamed director who is indeed the person previously referred to as Dr. Caligari - with Cesare and the other characters seen in this story all also patients of the not-Caligari.

Clearly The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is not as twisted and violent as the asylum-based pictures that followed it, but it's impossible to not talk about such films and not make reference to this absolute classic.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.