Hey everyone Blue here!
The following episode of Darkology was originally part of a crossover collaboration I worked
on awhile back!
It was a special secret episode that you could only watch if you followed a special link
to it, but seeing as that link will soon be broken, I wanted to share it here, especially
for any new viewers who might’ve missed it.
Enjoy!
There’s something dreadfully creepy about watching an old film from the days of early
cinema.
Even if the film isn’t necessarily a “horror” film, and even if you love old cinema- there’s
a very subtle feeling of the macabre that is unshakable.
Just look at films like Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, or The Phantom of the Opera.
I know.
They’re all “horror” films, so it kind of follows that they’d be inherently creepy.
But that’s not what I’m referring to.
Intended to be a melodrama, The Man Who Laughs is an example of a film that reads as a horror
when it isn’t, simply because of the gloomy and harsh makeup visuals.
He Who Gets Slapped is another silent film intended to be a drama, though depending on
whether you have coulrophobia, very much might be the scariest thing you’ve ever seen.
The way that the lighting constantly fluctuates in and out in the stark contrast of black
and white.
The near-stop-motion-esque frame rate at which the actors move.
It all feels like a weird black and white dream that we’re viewing through a large
zoetrope, where anything could happen.
But to better understand the psychology behind our uneasiness with old film, we’ll need
to first take a look at the infant days of an innovation in art: the photograph.
Before the 19th century, portraits had to be painted and they were very expensive.
But on January 7th, 1839 the very first photograph was announced to the world.
But on January 7th, 1839 the very first commercially available photographic process was announced
to the world, and the photography industry exploded.
Suddenly, everyone was raving about this new art form.
Photography allowed anyone- not just the wealthy, to achieve a kind of immortality.
The quality was pristine, but the exposure times were long.
These early photographs took several minutes to capture, which is why there are many creepy
photos of babies and animals appearing as fuzzy blurs.
This could partially be the reason as to why models often didn’t smile in old photos-
they had to pose for a very long time.
How long can you hold a smile?
Point being, perhaps the reason why there’s a subtle creepiness in old film, is because
we subconsciously associate them with these grim photos of early photography, which we
often find creepy.
There’s something very intriguing about how moving photographs have the ability to
not only capture the subjects within them, but their actions as well.
Have you perchance seen the German film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?
There’s something very dark and macabre about it which may have had something to do
with the culture at the time.
During those days, Germany had a desolate and depressing environment.
Their economy was in the dumps for fifty years.
It makes sense that what film makers were producing would reflect such pessimistic conditions.
Caligarism is a term used to describe these bizarre style of films which usually focused
on themes like madness and obsession, usually through visual distortion.
These sort of films were visually intriguing and inspirational for the masters of today
.
But again, it wasn’t necessarily just the “horror” films that had a creep factor.
Charlie Chaplin is perhaps the most well-known actor from the silent film era, and though
much of his work revolved around comedy, through the way the picture progresses, we can still
see that subtle creepy silent-film aesthetic.
On top of that, because of the “silent” factor, early cinema often relied on expressive
stage acting and overly expressive facial expressions.
Something about these caricatures of people may come off as slightly unsettling, similar
to clowns.
Another reason could be the use of practical effects.
As goofy as they can look, they’re more haunting because they was clearly made in
real life and not digitally created on the computer.
I mean, today’s CGI effects are cool- but there’s something about the haunting realism
of the silent film world that gets lost in translation.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPn-iWuo2h8)
There’s just something so nightmarishly visceral about knowing that, for it have been
filmed, that scary image on screen had to exist at one point in real life.
George Méliés, is largely considered to be the “Spielberg” of his time and the
father of special effects in film.
Debuting in 1902, his film, “A Trip To The Moon” is widely regarded as one of the most
influential films of all time, having been one of the first in early cinema to employ
the use of, as “A Short History of Film notes, “spectacle, sensation, and technical
wizardry to create a cosmic fantasy that was an international sensation”.
However, regardless of its historical impact, there is still that same vague creepiness
to it- almost as if we’re looking into another world.
But then again, isn’t that literally what we’re doing?
If you think about it, most people alive today, did not exist when these moving pictures on
the screen were being shot.
The last person to live in the 1800s, Emma Morano, born in 1899, sadly passed away in
April of 2017.
So perhaps the reason behind this errant creepiness, is the idea that all the actors you are seeing,
all the people involved in putting together the sets, the person behind the camera, as
well as the many audiences who saw the film during its time,
are all dead.
Sure, we can recreate that old black and white silent film era look and even produce visuals
in modern film that are haunting in equally effective ways.
I mean, remember The Babadook?
But it's not so much that the base content of old film is any more frightening than what
we can make today- it’s the idea that these haunting images and figures moving on the
screen- they’re all dead in real life, and have been for a very long time.
It's kinda like a lifeless ventriloquist dummy in storage.
Though immortalized, the only time they’re “alive” is when the film is rolling.
It’s a chilling idea to think that they are essentially ghosts among us.
But these ghosts may not last forever.
In 2013, the US Library of Congress announced that a total of 70% of American silent feature
films are believed to be completely lost.
Just look at Lon Chaney, “The Man of a Thousand Faces” and his filmography.
That’s a lot of lost films.
And that’s just for America.
Either through intentional destruction by the film studios after the end of the silent
era, environmental degradation, or accidental fires in studio vaults, the “silent film”
window into the past is slowly closing.
Perhaps silent film is simply unnerving due to its apparently fleeting nature.
Or perhaps it really simply is the pale and gaunt appearance of those who appear in an
old black and white film.
In a forum on what caused humans to acquire a fear of pale beings with dark, sunken eyes,
one answer seemed to make sense of it all.
Pale beings and dark sunken eyes those two in particular remind us on a subconscious
level, of dead and sick people.
They speak to our innate fears of dying- something we all eventually do, similar to a topic I
covered in Darkology #12 where I talked about the psychology of what makes old people so
frightening.
So back to the question at hand.
Why are silent films creepy?
At the end of the day, it seems to stem from a fear of death.
Thanatophobia to be exact- the feeling of dread when one thinks of the process of dying,
or ceasing to be.
Perhaps a thousand years from now, a more advanced civilization will look back into
our films of today and have similar feelings of dread, knowing that our “immortalized”
history might too, eventually fade into oblivion.
But what do you think?
Many of these surviving older films are now public domain, meaning you can easily find
them on websites like YouTube and Netflix.
Do you have a favorite film from the silent era?
Let me know in the comments below!
And as always, thanks for watching.