Was actually on first glance really intrigued by the title, before realising when and after watching the film that the title was misleading and had nothing to do with the film pretty much. My biggest reason for wanting to see 'The Haunted Castle' was FW Murnau. If you are intrigued by early cinema and are interested in getting into silent films and love films that look great, have interesting themes and great atmosphere, Murnau is a very appropriate place to start as his work is full of it.
To me though, don't make 'The Haunted Castle' your first exposure to him. While not a terrible film by all means, it may make one wondering what the fuss with Murnau is and not be too desperate to see more of his films. If so that would be a shame, because he did a lot of fantastic films since and as indicated above was a major talent. 'The Haunted Castle' is not a great or fair representation of him, nice enough for historical, curiosity and completest interests but not an awful lot more. Am not trying to be snobbish here or trying to upset anybody, it's just my thoughts.
It's not a bad looking film, though not one of Murnau's best or most interesting looking films. It is very atmospherically photographed which makes the most of the eerie lighting and extravagant set designs. The last quarter of the film is quite good and where the story finally comes to life, did find it entertaining and quite suspenseful.
Murnau's direction does show flashes of brilliance though not distinctive or distinguished enough. The dream sequences are wonderfully surreal especially with the scullery boy, which was also quite amusing. The way the main character goes about finding out the truth was interesting to watch. Although the acting was not impressive to me, Lothar Mehnert did a good job and had a powerful presence.
Despite a good last quarter, it is a shame that it takes a long time to get there. Although the running time is not long, the story for 'The Haunted Castle' felt like a short stretched out. It takes too long to get going and a vast majority of the film is very sluggish, which makes one finding it difficult to invest in a mystery that was already quite mundane and not very atmospheric.
Furthermore, 'The Haunted Castle' did feel talk-heavy, those verbose and too long intertitles slow the film down and didn't strike me as necessary, and felt too much of a filmed stage play. Am really trying to judge this as a product of the time and not compare it to now, but it's hard not to. Mehnert aside, the acting is both overdone and mannered and that is even for 1921. Have actually seen silent films from before 1921 that had a lot more subtle acting, so sorry for me calling this kind of acting as that of the time is not an excuse. Olga Tschechowa's mannerisms in particular grate.
Overall, worth a one-time look but Murnau is far from at his best here. 5/10
