The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Robert Wiene's 1920 horror film, told through the delusions of an asylum inmate and staged on jagged, hand-painted sets of impossible angles and shadows, is the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema. Conrad Veidt plays the somnambulist Cesare, sent by the fairground showman Dr. Caligari to commit murders while sleepwalking, in a story whose closing twist reframes everything the audience has seen. Its visual style, translating psychological disturbance directly into set design, shaped horror and film noir for decades after.