#33 - The Phantom Carriage (1921)
(dir. Victor Sjöström)
Legend has it that on New Year's Eve, the last person to die is fated to become Death's driver for the coming year, fetching the souls of the dead in a ghostly carriage. David Holm is the last to die on this particular year, and the current driver forces him to reflect on his wicked and sinful life. Sort of like It's a Wonderful Life only the main character is a terrible person, and also already dead.
This is a really fantastic film. It's not very heavy on the horror elements - aside from the concept and some neat scenes of the carriage, it's mostly a drama about regret, shame, death, and redemption. David is a well developed character who feels real and even sympathetic despite his significant faults, and is both the hero and villain of the story. Ingmar Bergman considered this one of the best films ever made, and its influence on his work is very clear in many ways that I won't get into because I don't feel like thinking very hard right now and also I don't think anyone reading this really cares. This is a horror movie blog, not an essay on Swedish art films.
Anyway, this film holds the distinction of being not only the oldest film I've ever watched for this blog, but also both the first silent film and the first Swedish film (Sweden isn't exactly known for horror films, though - the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Let the Right One In and Bergman's Hour of the Wolf). I thought it was wonderful and a nice palate cleanser from some of the trashy stuff I usually end up watching. If you like silent films and/or Bergman, you should absolutely see this.
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