The Movie Room

The Phantom Carriage 1921, directed by Victor Sjöström

Rating: 9/10

Another silent film in the Criterion Collection that is in my collection, Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage is centered around an old myth that the last person to die each year has to spend the next year collecting the souls of the dead until his or her spot his taken at the end of the next year. The story here is mythical and like a fairy tale, and the special effects really help sell it.

The story is both what really made me want to watch this movie in the first place, and it is great, even if it also ends up being the film’s greatest weakness for me. It takes this great premise about this death legend, but then adds in backstories for characters making them into real human beings more than allegorical or fairy tale characters. This is usually fine, and I love the idea of a fairy tale in the realistic setting, but the film is about 107 minutes long so trying to fit both this fascinating death mythology in alongside the story of the dying Salvation Army nurse and also the story of a local drunk who has ruined a bunch of relationships in his life and also the story of the drunk’s friend who died the previous year and has been doing his soul collecting duties is a bit too much and the film feels overstuffed—I like my silent films to have as few intertitles as possible and the more plot that needs to be explained the more titles that are needed. There are definitely worse offenders there, but this one does feel a bit bogged down by it—even as I love all the stories!

What ends up being this films’ greatest strength is the special effects. As one of the earliest examples of a horror film, it is exciting to see effects that may not be as sophisticated as the ones we have over 100 years later but that still look great! After silent films, you tend to see a lot of cheesy horror effects—the famous Claymation King Kong in the 30s, the titular Creature of the Black Lagoon, the beginning of computer horror, etc. But silent films tend to have a great expressionistic feel to them and that translates over to the horror effects. A side effect of my trying to watch more silent films is that silent horror films are becoming a bit of an obsession…not surprising given my overall love of horror.

As a horror film, as a silent classic, as a fairy tale, as just a film, The Phantom Carriage really delivers. It does feel a bit overstuffed, but it is centered around New Year’s Eve, and I am also always overstuffed by that point in the holiday season.