The Early Death Ray Serials
NO RATING The death ray was a staple of American silent film serials. In this post we’ll explore the real-life background of the death ray, as well as the early […]
Author Archives
Janne Wass
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (4/10) This 1920 version of R.L. Stevenson’s novella is not the famous John Barrymore version. This is the much ridiculed Sheldon Lewis version, which is in fact not as […]
The Last Man on Earth
NO RATING: FILM NOT AVAILABLE The United States’ first all-out sci-fi film, released in 1924, imagines what the world would look like if all men (but one) had been wiped […]
Aelita, Queen of Mars
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (8/10) Ostensibly Russia’s/USSR’s first sci-fi film, this political 1924 space fantasy lays down a surprisingly intelligent criticism of the communist revolution, once you look past the clunky, propagandistic symbolism […]
The Hands of Orlac
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (9/10) The Austrian 1924 film that inspired cult classics like Mad Love, The Beast with Five Fingers and Body Parts is a tour de force of psychological Expressionist terror. […]
Black Oxen
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (7/10) This 1923 film about a woman who undergoes medical treatment to become thirty years younger is a steadily paced and calmly directed mystery drama as well as a poignant, […]
The Man from Beyond
∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗ (2/10) Harry Houdini is frozen in ice for a hundred years, and is too busy longing for love and escaping from danger to realise it is no longer 1820, […]
