The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari: the attempted murder of Jane

This scene in Dr. Caligari is the third murder we see within the film. With a body count like this the film may count as the first slasher movie. The scene begins with our main character going to check out the Doctor. When he sees the sleepwalker still in his cabinet he suspects nothing. But next we’re shown the sleepwalker no longer in his box, something is amiss. The sleepwalker stalks along a wall before entering a house. We’re shown Jane’s bed all in white with large windows behind it. Suddenly, the sleepwalker. Pulling out the window the sleepwalker, all in black, sulks toward the bed slowly before raising a knife over the sleeping woman. Silhouetted, the sleepwalker notices the face of the woman in the bed and is instantly in love. He grabs her. She struggles. The commotion alerts others in the house and the sleepwalker grabs the woman and escapes via the distorted rooftops. While the sleepwalker shambles away with the woman under one arm we are shown out protagonist still keeping watch over the sleeping Dr. Caligari and sleepwalker, but how can this be? The sleepwalker makes it just out of town before realizing he’s been had. He drops the woman and keeps running into the woods outside town, where his is overcome as if by a trance. The scene ends with Jane waking up at home with our protagonist. She knows it was the sleepwalker who kidnapped her, raising questions from our protagonist. The editing of this scene is slow and deliberate, letting characters move move and react to things going on. Most cuts are to show a reaction or something happening off screen. Most of the feel of the scene comes from the set design and cinematography. The slow, deliberate pacing of the film adds to the horror atmosphere, the time it takes the sleepwalker to sulk from one side of the room to the other draws more attention to the only brightly lit thing on his personage, the knife.