The Phantom Carriage

The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen, 1921) is a Swedish silent horror drama you can watch online on iFILM. Victor Sjöström directed and took the lead role; the screenplay draws on Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf's novel of the same name.

New Year's Eve. A violent, drink-ruined man named David Holm dies at midnight and — by an old folk legend — inherits Death's chariot for the next year, collecting freshly departed souls. His predecessor's spirit rewinds time, forcing David to witness the wreckage he made of every life around him. Hilda Borgström plays his long-suffering wife; Astrid Holm is the Salvation Army sister who refuses to write him off.

Sjöström pioneered double-exposure photography to render the ghost sequences — the technique still gets studied a century later. Ingmar Bergman called The Phantom Carriage the single biggest influence on his career. Stream The Phantom Carriage (1921) online on iFILM: silent cinema that hits harder than most modern thrillers.