Dr. Caligari

Friday, May 2 - Saturday, May 3, 2025

SHOWTIMES AT IFC CENTER

As sexually deranged as it is stylistically unhinged, this psychedelic surrealist neo-noir reworking of the 1920 German expressionist classic features Laura Albert as Mrs. Van Houten, a woman whose libido is dangerously out of control. There’s only one place for her – the Caligari Insane Asylum.

Madeleine Reynal plays Dr. Caligari, the granddaughter of the original Doctor, whose own experiments in psychosexual therapy have led her to the brink of a radical treatment involving hormonal exchange. Having drugged and imprisoned Mrs. Van Houten’s sexually repressed husband, Caligari sets out to extract the brain fluid of an incurably nymphomaniac Mrs. Van Houten and inject it into the head of a cannibalistic serial killer (John Durbin) addicted to electroconvulsive therapy. What could possibly go wrong?

Screening as part of our series Waverly Midnights: Ecstasy in Polychrome

  • Country USA
  • Year 1989
  • Running Time 80 minutes
  • Format DCP
  • Distributor Mondo Macabro
  • Director Stephen Sayadian
  • Cast Madeleine Reynal, Fox Harris, Laura Albert, Jennifer Balgobin, John Durbin
  • Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

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