Main Cast: Madeleine Reynal, Fox Harris, Laura Albert, Jennifer Balgobin, John Durbin
Release Year: 1989
Country: US
Run Time: 80 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Sharing little in common with Robert Wiene's expressionist classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (aside from the name and a series of stills from the film during the opening titles), this brain-damaged, perverse fever dream is set in the Caligari Insane Asylum (CIA), a nightmare labyrinth of impossible angles and colors, within which the fabled mesmerist's kinky granddaughter (Madeleine Reynal) rules with an iron hand, a phallic-looking syringe, and a hot-pink PVC dress. Caligari's associates -- including a leering therapist (Fox Harris) and a clone-like doctor/nurse team -- are loonier than their own patients...and in this place, that's saying a lot. Most of the unnameable experiments taking place have to do with the doc's desire to transplant her grandfather's synaptic fluid into her own brain to acquire his genius. She also has a peculiar fascination for prize patient Mrs. Van Houten (Laura Albert), a repressed housewife with horrifying sexual fantasies involving doors with giant tongues and razor-wielding madmen. (When asked to describe her life in two words, Van Houten replies matter-of-factly, "unending torment.") Basically a catalogue of surreal, psychosexual shock images, this is the second feature from director Stephen Sayadian (aka Rinse Dream), whose porno epic Cafe Flesh also melded sci-fi themes and post-modern expressionism; this is essentially more of the same, minus the explicit sex. One wonders why he bothered. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Gene Zerna - Les Van Houten; Carol Albright - Screaming Patient; Joseph Baratelli - Shoe Salesman on TV; Vera Butler - Human Lamp; Catherine Case - Patient with Extra Hormones; Lori Chacko - Patient in Bed; Debra A. Deliso - Grace Butter; Salvador R. Espinoza - Spanish Patient; April Hartz - Shoe Customer on TV; Marjean Holden - Patient in Bed; Jennifer Miro - Miss Koonce; Tequila Mockingbird - Door Tongue; Dave Perry - Dr. Lodger; Barry Phillips - Cesare; Stephen Quadros - Scarecrow; Anthony Robertson - Patient in Doorway; Magie Song - Patient in Straitjacket
Credit
Belinda Williams-Savadian - Costume Designer, Stephen Sayadian - Director, G. Martin Steiner - Editor, Mitchell Froom - Composer (Music Score), Sheri Short - Makeup, Stephen Sayadian - Production Designer, Ladi von Jansky - Cinematographer, Joseph F. Robertson - Producer, Ken Diaz - Special Effects, Stephen Sayadian - Screenwriter, Jerry Stahl - Screenwriter
Dr. Caligari is a 1989cult film by Stephen Sayadian starring Madeleine Reynal, Laura Albert, Gene Zerna, David Parry and Jennifer Balgobin. As can most likely be inferred from the title, this movie concerns a crazy doctor's illegal experiments.
Originally, and briefly, billed as Dr. Caligari 3000 when it debuted at selected theaters in 1989, the film promptly faded into obscurity and was only released on VHS and limited Betamax formats as Dr. Caligari. The film was also released in America on Laserdisc by Image Home Entertainment. The Image laserdisc is, however, very rare, and is extremely expensive when found. The film is considered a cult classic and has been shown as a "Midnight Movie" at various times. The movie was filmed entirely inside of large studios in a bizarre landscape combination of both artificial outdoor and indoor scenes merged together. Windows and doors hang in mid-air against all black backgrounds. and vegetation grows inside of rooms. Much of this is done to give the audience an insight into the disturbed minds of both Dr. Caligari (Madeleine Reynall) and her patients. The overdramatic, stylistic acting is amusing and pokes fun at cliches and stereotypes and thus it has the film play out as an artistc performance piece rather than a standard film. Critics have often stated that the film lacks any merit and suffers from poor acting. Many fans of the film have cited both a strong David Lynch "feel" to the film as well as a touch of David Cronenberg's Videodrome. The scene where Mrs. Van Houten speaks to a glamorous image of herself on the T.V. clearly reminds one of Debbie Harry as Nicki in Videodrome licking her lips and enticing James Woods. Many of the special effects, such as the fleshy wall with open sores and a giant tongue, leave one feeling uneasy much in the way some people react to scenes in Lynch's films. Overall, the look of the film is an unmistakable product of the 1980s and represents a good juncture point to where film was heading at the end of the 80's.
The main plot involves Dr. Caligari's experiments with her patients at C.I.A (Caligari Insane Asylum) where she transfers glandular brain fluids from one patient to another. Two of her main patients, Mr. Pratt, a cannibalistic serial killer, and Mrs. Van Houten, a nymphomanical housewife, are the primary subjects of her mindswapping. Mrs. van Houten becomes the cannibal and Mr. Pratt the nymphomaniac; although, they seem to still retain some elements of themselves as well. Apparently Caligari's unconventional idea is to cure people by introducing equally opposite traits to balance out disturbed minds, but this is never implicitly stated in the film. Several other doctors, a married couple Mr & Mrs. Lodger, become concerned with Caligari's experiments and approach Mrs. Lodgers father Dr. Avol who confronts Caligari only to fall victim to her mindswapping and receives an injection of Mrs. Van Houtens fluid turning him into a transvestite nymphomaniac. Sex is a very prominent theme throughout the movie, especially for Mrs. Van Houten who appears topless and performs masturbation at several points, but there are no hard core graphic scenes as this was released as an R rated feature. By the end of the film Mrs. Van Houten has injected Dr. Caligari with her own nymphomanical fluid and herself with Caligari's ancestor's (the original Dr. Caligari from the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)thus the patient becomes the doctor, the doctor becomes the patient and the inmates are left running the asylum.
Availability
The film is considered collectible and can still be found in VHS or occasionally Laserdisc format on-line from auction sites such as E-bay and used copies are sometimes offered at Amazon.com.
Excalibur Films, despite mostly dealing with porn films, currently distributes this film on DVD. The reason is that Excalibur Films was formed by the film's executive producer.
