Not everything is gold as a silent movie Not every horror of the Great Silent era was good. Along with the “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, “Voznitsa”, “Nosferatu” and other masterpieces came (albeit rarely) and anti-masterpieces. In 1903, the world saw such an abomination as “Execution of the Elephant” – a short film about the electrocution of an elephant (it was really killed, it was not a production). If you dig, you can find some weak horror shorts from the category of "about nothing." Unlike elephant snuff, they can be watched. And what about the full-length silent horrors, were there any failures among them? We've been. I have seen one of these failures.
Let me imagine - Italian horror (well, like horror, more pulls on melodrama) 1917 "Ghost". The film has a literary basis, it is based on the novel by Antonio Fogazzaro. I haven't read the novel, I admit it might be good, but we're looking at the film. The plot is the following - a girl named Marina, having lost her parents, was in the care of her uncle, who is her count. She settled in his luxurious castle and gradually began to go crazy. She thinks that she is the reincarnation of a girl named Cecilia who died in the castle long ago. I think? Maybe that's how it is. Is it mysticism or psychosis? Call the paramedics. . .
Have you read Fogazzaro's original novel? "Congratulations" - you will be confused in the story. Here is an example of a sloppy film adaptation, the creators of which forgot that the film will be watched not only by the audience who read the book. A boring, uninteresting, completely indistinct picture. There are enough intertitles, but they do not save from confusion. You watch a movie and wonder what it is. Who's that? Did I miss something? In some places, I couldn’t stand it and rewinded the movie back to understand the plot at least a bit – but by the end I was tired. The story of Cecilia was not really told, which is why the drama does not work here. Some significant characters did not bother to introduce in time - and it turned out that people are fussing, climbing to the foreground, and you sit and guess what kind of audience this is. The main character is annoying, I quickly got tired of watching her seizures. The film leaves many questions, but this is not a plus, they do not want to understand. And do not want to sit down for the book, on the contrary, you feel rejection in absentia to it. And if so, the verdict is clear - we have a bad film adaptation and, even worse, a bad movie.
The only thing I liked about the film was the atmospheric soundtrack. And also the entourage - a castle on the shore of the lake ... That was the end of the pluses. I did not enjoy watching this picture and would not recommend it to others. The book of Fogazzaro has another adaptation, 1942. It is possible that things are better with her. But there's no hunting to check yet, I'm not ready to dive into that story again.