The movie may not appear to contain the trademark Expressionistic markings of one of cinema's most influential directors, traits he would be famous for in his future films. But April 1921's "The Haunted Castle" shows wisps of F. W. Murnau's comfort level behind the camera by unfolding a dark mystery murder inside a foreboding mansion.
Born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe, the young man who had passion towards film changed his last name to the town he had lived in, Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany. Before he served as a German air pilot during World War One, Murnau was a student of stage director Max Reinhardt, who was a master of naturalistic settings. Reinhardt had introduced new techniques on theater lighting, set designs, and elongated continuity, all of which Murnau eventually transported into his films.
Murnau, once he was comfortable in handling cinematic structure, branched out to revolutionized film aesthetics. The director played an important role in the Expressionistic Movement in which horror, film noir and thrillers all draw a portion of their pictorial look on Murnau's works. Despite "The Haunted Castle" not literally being a horror film, there exists an air of mystery in the recent death of the brother of a hunting party's member gathering at the mansion. The plot thickens when the widow of the diseased shows up at the castle with a new husband. Accusations fly thick as arrows as to who killed the brother, with Murnau heightening the suspense when a man of faith enters the picture.
Born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe, the young man who had passion towards film changed his last name to the town he had lived in, Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany. Before he served as a German air pilot during World War One, Murnau was a student of stage director Max Reinhardt, who was a master of naturalistic settings. Reinhardt had introduced new techniques on theater lighting, set designs, and elongated continuity, all of which Murnau eventually transported into his films.
Murnau, once he was comfortable in handling cinematic structure, branched out to revolutionized film aesthetics. The director played an important role in the Expressionistic Movement in which horror, film noir and thrillers all draw a portion of their pictorial look on Murnau's works. Despite "The Haunted Castle" not literally being a horror film, there exists an air of mystery in the recent death of the brother of a hunting party's member gathering at the mansion. The plot thickens when the widow of the diseased shows up at the castle with a new husband. Accusations fly thick as arrows as to who killed the brother, with Murnau heightening the suspense when a man of faith enters the picture.