I cannot recall when first I saw this film, but it was likely on PBS in the 1970s. I had grown fond of old silent films after watching The Joe Franklin Show in the summers of mu childhood, but he showed mostly the great silent comedians' best stuff. Real cinema, like this, came to me later.
The big twist of the film is one that, by now, is old hat, having been ruined after the revelation that a season of Dallas, the 1980s prime time soap opera, was all a dream. Yes, this film is where the 'It's only a dream!' trope started.
But, in films like this it's rarely the what will happen that matters bit the how it happens. I know this film was recently remade, although it was in a shot by shot replay of the film, not unlike the Psycho remake of some years back, but one has to wonder why, if done shot by shot, there is a need to remake a film as influential as this one?
Other silent horror films, notably The Golem and Nosferatu, also had moments of greatness, but Caligari also had a psychological aspect that they were missing, and it's likely this aspect why the film retains its power in my mind, whereas The Golem is hazy and Nosferatu was superseded by Werner Herzog's 1970 updating.
Check it out for yourself:
