Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

Poelzig’s (Boris Karloff) mansion where all kinds of twisted relationships and aberrant
behaviours are to be found, from Satanism to black mass orgies, sadistic revenge rituals to
murder and incest. Visually the film follows the paths of German Expressionism, with
lighting effects that create a dark and mysterious atmosphere throughout the film. Some
interesting symbols appear in this film, like for example, a spiral iron staircase used several
times, especially during the grand tour that Poelzig takes with his guests. The spiral
staircase suggests the long descent that the characters of the film will follow into the
underground secretive vaults of the Fort, now converted into a tomb mausoleum, and
eventually envisages the downturn into chaos their lives are about to undertake. These
visual icons would later be very much used by noir auteurs as part of a semiotic system
peculiar to the noir canon, as I explain in the analysis of the films and their symbols in Part
IV.
Tod Browing’s Dracula and James Whale’s Frankenstein (both released in 1931,
February and November, respectively), are credited for having opened the horror cycle.
These films would star two major names mentioned in the film above: the former casts
Bela Lugosi (in the role of Count Dracula) and Boris Karloff, in the latter, is the Monster.
Many other similar productions would follow over the next few years, including versions
of “Frankensteins”, such as for instance, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - perhaps the
most celebrated of these films -, The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), The Curse of
Frankenstein (1957), and so forth. These productions were actually shot using much the
same cinematographic equipment and the same props used in the original film (same
castle, for example) with a close attention to composition in terms of décor and design,
camera angles and lighting (revealing the significant influence that the films of F.W.
Murnau had on Whale’s use of the stealthy moving camera).
Another horror cycle started with Son of Frankenstein (1939) which was
Universal’s third Frankenstein film. If the other Frankenstein films appear to be sequels,
consistently using the monster figure which falls under the evil spells of someone and
creates chaos (fig. 28), Rowland Lee’s production makes use of an extravagant style with
its looming Gothic sets and lit to generate stark contrasts, strongly influenced by German
Expressionism.
little river below was swollen red, a raging torrent of blood. And that high hill yonder, where Engineer
Poelzig now lives, was the site of Fort Marmorus, the greatest graveyard in the world.”
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