The Haunted Castle (1921)

 F.W. Murnau's "The Haunted Castle"


After completing his 1921 film "Journey into the Night," F.W. Murnau continued to use very slow-paced, bleak storytelling to experiment with his filmmaking style. 

The story takes place at a castle in which a group of gentlemen are gathered for a hunt. When the family of a murdered man named Peter arrives, suspicions abound about who the murderer is. Through the twist and turns of the story, it is uncovered that Peter's sister had her lover kill him. To find this out, Peter's brother dressed as a Catloic Priest to trick his sister-in-law into a confession.

Despite the twisting and turning of this murder mystery, the impressivness of the filmmaking takes center stage. Murnua is incredibly sublte, which makes it the more impressive. Murnau attempts to sit with moments longer than they need to be. For example, he sticks with a moment even after the scene should supposedly end. The effect creates an immediate interest in the viewer about that specific moment. He also draws scenes out and has actors really slow down the timing of their action. All of this forces the viewer to hang on every scene and every moment. The specific attention to the immediacy of what is happening allows the viewer to actually be surprised when a twist occurs. His attention to the specificity of pace, timing, and action in a scene creates the drama, fear, or intrigue necessary to deliver something structurally that the viewer is unaware of.

F.W. Murnau in 1921 used "Journey into the Night" and "The Haunted Castle" to experiment and figure out his directing style. However, the films themselves are not revolutionary. They are forgotten amongst the great silent films and even partially forgotton among Murnau's career. However, they appear necessary for Murnau to figure out what sort of director he is and how he fits into the German cinema landscape.



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