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The Phantom Carriage

Original title: Körkarlen · Turkish title: Hayalet Fayton

“Do the Dead Come Back? Can Your Soul Leave Your Body...And Return Again?”

1921 · 1 h 47 min
Directed by Victor Sjöström
DramaFantasyHorror

Cast

Victor Sjöström Hilda Borgström Tore Svennberg

Credits

Written by: Selma Lagerlöf

Plot

On New Year's Eve a drunkard named David Holm hears the legend that the last person to die each year must drive Death's carriage for the next. Dying that night, he is faced by the carriage's driver, his old friend Georges, and made to review his life and the harm done to his wife, children and the Salvation Army sister who tried to save him. Victor Sjöström's 1921 Swedish film uses double exposure to show spirits, and it was a major influence on later directors, including Ingmar Bergman.

Sinekatalog’s take

Victor Sjöström's silent classic, with its ghostly double-exposure effects, follows a drunkard facing Death's carriage. Stern and moving, it influenced Bergman and remains a haunting moral fable.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 8.0 / 10 (16,089 votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% (16 critic reviews)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset; Rotten Tomatoes snapshot from October 2026. Scores change over time.

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