The Spiral Staircase (1945)

If the story of The Spiral Staircase had been realized as an ordinary full-color, thriller movie in 2012, it would most probably have been an insufferably inane experience to watch it. Somehow, this type of material could still be the skeleton of a decent film in 1945 and my theory is that we can give our praise to the director, Robert Siodmak, and the cinematographer. The film is standard suspense fare. A woman is murdered in the very beginning of the film and we learn that more muders are probably to come. Helen, a mute woman, works as a servant for an eccentric family in a big mansion. We start to suspect that she might be the next victim of the killer who tracks down handicapped women. The film often plays on the eerie sensation of not being alone in a room. Tracking scenes of rooms and hallways, along with extreme close-up, create the backdrop of a horror film. It is hard to believe that camera placement can mean so much, but here it really does. The relainship between the people that populate the story always veer toward the ambivalent and the slightly sadistic.