About the film
- Released
- December 1, 1989
- Certification
- R
- Country
- United States of America
- Starring
- Madeleine Reynal, Fox Harris, Laura Albert, Jennifer Balgobin, John Durbin
More credits
- Language
- English
- Origin
- US
- Studios
- Steiner
- Written by
- Jerry Stahl, Stephen Sayadian
- Produced by
- Gerald Stein, Joseph F. Robertson
- Cinematography
- Stephen Sayadian
- Music
- Mitchell Froom
- Also starring
- Gene Zerna, David Parry, Jennifer Miro, Stephen Quadros, Debra De Liso
Pastel walls, lurid lighting, and dialogue that sounds like it was written for a porno by someone who read too much Freud. The visual style owes everything to glossy eighties advertising, and the plot owes nothing to logic at all.
DR. CALIGARI (1989), directed and shot by Stephen Sayadian from a script he co-wrote with Jerry Stahl, recasts Caligari as the granddaughter of the original. This version follows Mrs. Van Houten, a woman unraveling from reality, whose husband Les brings her to the granddaughter of the original Caligari for treatment. The doctor proceeds with hormone injections, hallucinations, and sexual experiments layered over each other until diagnosis and seduction become inseparable.
Sayadian fills every frame with candy-colored sets and makeup that belongs on a magazine cover rather than a hospital ward. Mitchell Froom’s score adds a synthetic sheen to the chaos.
The film became a midnight movie favorite and remains a psychosexual satire dressed as schlock, as interested in Reagan-era consumer culture as it is in shock value.
Sources
How to see Dr. Caligari (1989)
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Source: JustWatch
Physical media
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Thanks!!! It’s been a long Time that i am searching for this movie ! Reminds me of society and videodrome
Wow, never heard of this one! Thanks.
Chinchilla!
worth a look
at least we now know what kinda shows they were playing on Videodrome…
or ‘Pee Wee’s Big Acid Trip’ !
Sayadian and Stahl had a good run with their first film, “Cafe Flesh”, which I think is a masterpiece of surrealist noir cabaret. Sure, it’s a porn movie but it was so outre that the “raincoat crown” didn’t get it. It gained a larger audience as a midnight show that almost upset the numbers for “Rocky Horror”. Their second collaboration, a surreal psychological romp with an appearance of Mrs Van Houten (played by Dorothy LeMay) was also a slightly more disturbing porno. Notable for including a scene with music by Wall of Voodoo. There is an X-rated version “Dr Caligari” as well.
I love the dialog and the odd pacing and cadence of the actor’s delivery of it! Plus the wacky blocking of the action. Everything is just so intentional
Also, see Cafe Flesh. One of his actual porn movies.
Stahl’s screenplay is beyond brilliant. Fox Harris chews up the screen as usual, but John Durbin steals the show as serial killer Gus Pratt. His transformation soliloquy alone is the stuff of nightmares. Amazing art direction, if only they had gotten a real cinematographer. I know you’re watching me…
Loved it when I first saw it years ago and haven’t found it since. Thanks! 😁