The Caligari Bat Cometh
Andre Perkowski, YouTube’s mixologist of camp and horror, presents Silent Shadow of the Batman, a new classic in two parts. Borrowing scenes from such beloved silent films as The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, The Bat and The Man Who Laughs, he’s cobbled together a chilling exquisite corpse. Watch the first part, in which Bruce Wayne’s fate is cemented by the murder of his parents and his decision to become something truly horrible to the simple, superstitious minds of all criminals is made.
Silent Shadow of the Batman, Part 2 can be seen here. Other shorts by Perkowski can be viewed on his YouTube profile page.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
My heart is warmed by the idea of this fellow poring over footage late into the night with old copies of Action Comics in hand. Let’s just for the sake of fantasy say he did it with real film, a razorblade and hand-lettered intertitles :)
August 12th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
My heart is tickled and likewise fancied by the array of films he DID razorblade together with real film, this man must not sleep very often. The Ed Wood trailers are poignant and terrible, a Tom Waits song I believe.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
This definitely tugs at the heart of old skool batman fans. Many forget the real roots of the character lay in that era. Especially the old costume.
Paul Pope did a great Batman story set in that era years back. I think it was set in Berlin though.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
The nascent idea forms: getting these films shown in small, local theaters, spreading the rumor that there was a forgotten Bat-Man movie made by a nameless auteur who used all the old back lots and contract actors on their lunch break.
“Mr. Veidt, could you menace this way? It won’t take but a moment…”
August 13th, 2008 at 4:37 am
By the looks of responses on youtube, you wouldn’t even have to make much of an effort spreading that rumor. Gullible folks are rampant!
August 14th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I can’t begin to get into all the wonderful aspects of this film. So I won’t.
“Go out and be decent!”
August 16th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Thanks, folks! Ah wouldn’t it be nice to shoot this on decaying old black and white film. Somebody give me a few sandwiches and some token pictures of money, then convince DC it makes perfect sense. “No, really – demographics across the board just love silent movies!”
There are many many hours of actual shot on film things I’ve done on that youtube channel, go to the profile for the easily digestible stuff and the playlists to sink into far odder territory. Bring a bucket.
There’s another more extensive 3 part serial in that takes these techniques and grinds them into paste, first part up sunday/monday. its nice to have 26,000 hits on a video as opposed to 11 so I’m assuming people want another slice… so let’s eat.
August 17th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
And lo, it is done! The first slice, anyway. Prepare for derangement of the senses:
“Arkham After Midnight”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD4XqYT1-JU
Chapter One:
“Mark of the Mad Hatter.”
The Darkest, Most Depressing Knight! A new/old retro 1920s silent serial… Now that the origin story is out of the way with “Silent Shadow of the Bat-Man” and I’m still having fun with this found footage-soaked, uncommercial concept strictly for educational and sporadically recreational purposes. Getting more interested in slicing and dicing more material in service of a strange story of sorts… so, grown fresh from our beloved Terminal Pictures garden, here then is the first slice: wherein we get big globs of setup concerning Arkham Asylum… madness! surreal delirium! Hallucinations! Screaming lunatics! Obsessive supervillains! That amazing triumph of conceit over technology, the incredible “Bat-Gyro.” All this and the trippiest final two minutes you ever needed to see, absolutely, positively, frothing-at-the-mouth free.