Dr. Caligari is a 1989 film directed by Stephen Sayadian.
It is, at least nominally, a sequel to the all-time cinematic classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). A Les Van Houten admits his wife, Mrs. Van Houten (Laura Albert), to an insane asylum because of her out-of control nymphomania. Unfortunately, he chose poorly when finding an institution. The asylum where Mr. Van Houten has committed his wife is run by one Dr. Caligari (Madeline Reynal), the granddaughter of the original Dr. Caligari. While the true motives of the original Dr. Caligari were ambiguous, this one is a straight-up mad scientist, who performs bizarre experiments on the inmates of her asylum. Because she has nothing better to do, she performs a cerebrospinal fluid transplant between Mrs. Van Houten and a cannibal serial killer, one Gus Pratt.
This film is an extended exercise in bizarre, freaky imagery, like the scene where Mrs. Van Houten is chased by a razor-wielding man wearing a giant baby doll head, or the scene where Mrs. Van Houten is licked by a gigantic tongue sticking out of a pulsating wall of flesh, or the scene where Mrs. Van Houten attempts to give a blow job to a scarecrow but finds nothing but straw, or the scene where Mr. Van Houten gets sucked into a TV. Sayadian, who was a porn director, had earlier made a film called Café Flesh that was a mixture of hardcore porn and weird, disturbing imagery; for this film he took the porn out (but there's still plenty of Fanservice, and it certainly has the No Budget look of porn).
Tropes:
- Bedlam House: The Caligari Insane Asylum — CIA, get it? — where Dr. Caligari performs ghastly experiments on her patients.
- Bizarrchitecture: In a bit taken directly from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, there don't seem to be any right angles in the asylum. All the doors and windows form bizarre, crazy angles. (To the extent that there are doors and windows. Much of the film was obviously shot on a bare sound stage.)
- Body Horror:
- In the opening dream sequence a suppurating flesh wound appears on the woman on TV, and then Mrs. Van Houten's leg.
- A woman in the asylum who has grotesquely long breasts. Namely, breasts that each stick out about five feet from her chest.
- Brain in a Jar: Dr. Caligari has her famous grandfather's brain in a jar. She seems to want to use his mind to help her conquer the world...or something.
- Call-Back: The opening conversation between Mrs. Van Houten and Dr. Caligari, after her long nightmare sequence, is an exchange where Mrs. Van Houten says "I know you're watching me," Dr. Caligari says she's an interesting subject, and Mrs. Van Houten screams. At the end, when Mrs. Van Houten has taken over the asylum and Dr. Caligari is her prisoner, the same conversation is repeated with the roles reversed.
- Camp: While the original Caligari is a landmark of psychological horror, this film is silly camp. There's the over-the-top acting, there's the scene where Pratt the serial killer who gets off on electroshock therapy says "Juice me, I'm a shiver boy", there's the scene where Mrs. Van Houten attempts to fellate a scarecrow, only to find nothing but straw in his pants...
- Catapult Nightmare: Starts with an eight-minute long sequence in which Mrs. Van Houten watches a surreal TV program that talks back to her, then tries to take a bubble bath only to run around topless while she's chased by a razor-wielding maniac with a baby doll mask, only to watch the maniac have sex with a different woman, while still wearing his mask. She wakes up from this catapult nightmare style. (The rest of the movie is just as weird as the dream.)
- Fanservice: Mrs. Van Houten is a very good-looking woman who gets naked repeatedly, like in the opening dream sequence where she drops her towel to take a bath, only to flee from a razor-wielding maniac.
- Fanservice Extra: One scene has Pratt trying on some women's makeup after getting his shot of Mrs. Van Houten's cerebrospinal fluid. Also in the room is a very attractive woman wearing nothing but her underpants, who does nothing, except sit and watch and look very attractive.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: The Lodgers, husband-and-wife doctor team at the asylum, are the least weird thing about it. They want to stop Dr. Caligari's bizarre experiments, and Ramona Lodger later tries to rescue her father, Dr. Avol, from Dr. Caligari's clutches. They're still weird, though, talking in the same stiff unnatural manner as everyone else does. Additionally, they finish each other's sentences all the time.
- Flashback: Gus Pratt's demented story about how he once killed and ate an innocent schoolteacher.
- For Science!: Why does Dr. Caligari swap around the cerebrospinal fluid of two of her patients? Why does she give one of her patient's gigantic elongated breasts that look like monster flesh worms? Boredom?
- I'm a Humanitarian:
- Gus Pratt, patient at the asylum, is a deranged cannibal serial killer—but a very cheerful, happy one. He tells a story about how he killed a schoolteacher and cooked her in a gigantic pot.
- After getting injected with Pratt's cerebrospinal fluid, Mrs. Van Houten becomes a cannibal, and cooks and eats her husband.
- Looks Like Cesare: Ironically, the guy called Cesare doesn't look much like Cesare. However Mrs. Van Houten does, getting the pale look and dark circles around her eyes after she's injected with Pratt's cerebrospinal fluid.
- Madness Mantra: One particular patient says nothing but "Chinchilla! Chinchilla! Chinchilla!", over and over again.
- Repeat Cut: Used when Ramona, a doctor at the asylum, screams after finding her father's head in a stove. (Naturally, he's still alive and just fine after this.)
- Surrealism: Giant walls of flesh with enormous tongues sticking out. Electroshock therapy delivered by electric chair, and a patient who gets off on it. A patient at the asylum who does nothing but say the word "chinchilla" over and over and over again. One character's head turning up on a plate in the oven for no particular reason. Mr. Van Houten's mouth disappears.
- Technicolor Science: The row of test tubes and beakers with brightly colored liquids is the least-weird thing about Dr. Caligari's asylum.
- Trapped in TV Land: In Mrs. Van Houten's opening nightmare, her husband gets sucked into the staticky black-and-white TV she's watching.
- Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: At one point, when Dr. Caligari wants Les to stop talking, she makes his mouth disappear.
