Once thought lost forever (like many silent era films), the very first horror anthology, Eerie Tales, was rediscovered in the 2000’s. To compound that great fortune, a new 16mm print of the film was found in 2023, which made a full, high-definition restoration possible.

Now, Redwood Creek Films has launched a crowdfunding campaign to do just that, and to offer backers a restored blu-ray edition and a full 4K transfer of Unheimliche Geschichten (released as Eerie Tales in English).

The project is already fully funded, having raised more than $6 thousand at the time of this writing.

Directed by Richard Oswald and starring Conrad Veidt, Eerie Tales is made up of five stories: The Apparition, The Hand, The Black Cat (based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story), The Suicide Club (based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story) and The Spectre (Der Spuk).

Here’s the official pitch taken from the Eerie Tales Indiegogo campaign page (minor spoilers follow- it has been over a hundred years, after all):

The first horror anthology for the first time in High Definition

Among the classics of the British horror film is a set of anthology horror films produced by Amicus: ‘Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors’ (1964), ‘Torture Garden’ (1967), ‘The House that Dripped Blood’ (1970), ‘Asylum’ (1972), ‘Tales From The Crypt’ (1972), ‘Vault Of Horror’ (1973) and ‘From Beyond The Grave’ (1973). They were all apparently by Ealing Studios (‘Dead Of Night’,1945).

But the history of the anthology horror film goes back further. Before Conrad Veidt appeared in ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ (1920), he starred in ‘Unheimliche Geschichten’ (1919), better known as ‘Eerie Tales’.

About the movie

Unheimliche Geschichten, titled Eerie Tales in English, is a 1919 German silent anthology film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Conrad Veidt.

Eerie Tales was directed, produced and co-written by Richard Oswald. The film stars Anita Berber, Reinhold Schünzel and Conrad Veidt as the Harlot, the Devil and Death in the opening sequence, but they also play various other roles in each of the five stories. Each story was based on an author’s work, including Anselm Heine (The Apparition, 1912), Robert Liebmann (The Hand), Edgar Allan Poe (The Black Cat, 1843), Robert Louis Stevenson (“The Suicide Club”, 1878) and Richard Oswald’s own contribution (Der Spuk/ The Spectre).

Director Richard Oswald was not a newcomer to fantasy anthology films. Three years earlier he had filmed a dramatic version to Tales of Hoffman (1916). He had also directed two of the parts of an adaptation of der Hund Von Baskerville (1915). This same year, 1919, Oswald had made his most famous film, Different From The Others.

Synopsis

At midnight in a closed antiquarian bookshop, three figures – Death, the Devil and the Harlot – step out of paintings and read five macabre stories.

The first story is The Apparition, about a man (Veidt) and a woman (Berber) who check into a hotel. When the woman vanishes, everyone there denies she ever existed.

The second story is called The Hand, about two men (Veidt and Schunzel) who compete over a woman they desire. The loser kills his opponent, which leads to the victim’s ghostly hand avenging itself on his murderer.

The third story is The Black Cat, about a drunk (Schunzel) who murders his wife (Berber) and walls up her body in his cellar. The family cat reveals his murderous secret to the police.

The fourth story is The Suicide Club, about a detective who discovers a secret society only to be chosen as their next victim via a card game.

The final story called The Spectre is about a braggart baron (Veidt) who encourages his wife (Berber) to have an affair with a total stranger.

With the completion of the fifth tale, the clock in the shop strikes one and the three ghostly storytellers retreat back into their paintings.

Backers can get a digital download of the restored Eerie Tales for approximately $31 (converted from Euros), while a physical blu-ray version is approximately $52. If you have more cash to spend, you can also receive a digital version of the Eerie Tales soundtrack.

It is also worth noting that there is an additional shipping charge starting at $10 for those in the United States.

Interested? You can check out some sample stills below or visit the full Eerie Tales Indiegogo campaign page here.

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