The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari () is a 1920 German
silent horror film, directed by
Robert Wiene and written by
Hans Janowitz and
Carl Mayer. Considered the quintessential work of
German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypnotist (
Werner Krauss) who uses a
somnambulist (
Conrad Veidt) to commit murders. The film features a dark and twisted visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique and curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets.