Körkarlen – 1921 – The Phantom Carriage

I got comments on the first episode of my YouTube series “History of Horror” that Körkarlen aka The Phantom Carriage should have been mentioned and it wasn’t. I thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that the criticism might be correct. Maybe I should have mentioned it as a piece of early horror history? But I wasn’t too familiar with it. It was a long time since I saw it and my memory is, as you all know, something that definitely could improve. So, what to do? I have to go back to it and watch it again of course. What follows down below are my thoughts about it.

Körkarlen is undoubtedly a movie that is very important from a film history perspective. The technique used alone makes it a very influential movie. It’s filled with double exposures that make the ghost-like presence of the main characters what they are. It may not seem special today but a hundred years ago I think that would have been almost equivalent to inventing the wheel! So, to put it briefly, Körklaren is an important piece of cinema as Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Nosferatu. But is it actually horror? Well, partly it might be considered horror, partly not I think. The ghost elements are certainly supernatural. There is a creature with a scythe collecting souls, loading them into his carriage, and transporting them to a place after death. I can’t think of anything more core horror than that.

Greek Mythology

But on the other hand. The story is not really a supernatural one. It’s more a lesson in morality and the power of God. It bears a great resemblance to the story told in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Someone full of sin, not necessarily evil, gets guided through their sins and finally sees their errors or the light of God or however you like to put it. How much inspiration Selma Lagerlöf, who wrote the novel, got from Dickens’s story is unknown to me though. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, I just see the similarities between the two stories.

There is of course also a connection to the Greek mythology of the Ferryman – Charon. Of course, here’s its carriage carried the dead would to the realm of death and not a ferry but it’s essentially the same idea. That’s how I see it anyway.

The Great Sinner

But let’s go back. What is the movie really about? Well, to begin with, we see this young woman laying on her deathbed. She knows she’s gonna die soon, and everyone around her knows it as well. She asks to see David Holm one last time and everyone around her is astonished. Why does she want to see this no-good-of-a-man? He’s done nothing good for anyone and he’s been mean to the dying woman who in turn has done all in her power to help him again and again. David Holm is a mean man and it’s a complete mystery why she wants to see him. But her will is followed. People are sent out to find the man.

Meanwhile, David Holm and his two comrades are sitting somewhere drinking alcohol and evoking the legend of Körkarlen, which translates into something like “the driver”. It is said that this driver has to drive the Phantom Carriage for one year until he is resolved and someone else needs to take his place. It’s new years eve and whoever dies last before there’s a new year is destined to drive the carriage the next year. Guess who dies at the last stroke of midnight? Yes, it’s David Holm and the driver come to pick him up. David refuses to go so the current driver engages in a conversation with him. Together they start to dissect his life from where it started to going south for him. A Christmas Carol and Ebenezer Scrooge ring a bell?

Some well-deserved background

Anyway, we, as the audience, get to know more and more about what led up to the moment of his demise. We, understand what he has been through and it might not be entirely his fault that things turned out the way they did. We’re also introduced to the greater power of God and though who work in God’s service. Sister Edit, who now is about to die and has sent for David Holm has been a real samaritan in life and has done only good. I think it’s typical for its time too that alcohol is a huge part of the problem. I’m not saying that alcohol is a lesser problem these days, but it’s portrayed as an evil ungodly thing more or less and I think that is more typical for its time.

The more we see about the past events the more we both empathize with and condemn David Holm. At least that was my feelings. Sister Edit is more or less such a soul that thinks of nothing else than eh good of others. She wants nothing for herself. Maybe that’s what makes the story so strong at the end of everything? I won’t give away the ending but the experience of getting there is a really pleasant one.

It’s a very well-acted piece and not only caricatures of people like you might see in other early cinematic works. This is real acting and storytelling at its finest. And, I don’t know what you say, but the text signs are pretty frequent. That means to me that the story comes through on another level than other movies which rely more on what happens on screen. There’s less screen time for just the sake of having screen time to astonish the audience with the moving pictures.