i would not comment about the acting or plot there plenty of that here already . what i would rather do be call attention to the visuals the cinematography and lighting and costuming and and especially the set design . normally and horror film take place in ancient setting crude medieval fortress and rustic castle that be dark and cluttered and gloomy . but this one be set in a perversely utopian sci fi fantasy the clean line and impeccably detailed and generously glaze modernistic and ( usually ) radiantly lit white and silver upper floor interior of the house . the low floor be an expressionistic prison and also clean line and but still dungeon like with it windowless wall of expose board form concrete . an elegant steel spiral staircase connect the two and and the angular expressionism reach it culmination in the chamber use for the black mass . karloff costume recall oskar schemmer bauhaus produce work angular and broad shoulder and narrow waisted and elegant . even the haircut of this man of the future in sharp and angular . his character be an engineer and architect and be give the name poelzig of a famous expressionist german architect and film set designer of the time and who be a colleague of the director on an early film . the elegant futurism in carry down to the detail level and include a digital night table clock and an abstract chess set . much of the genius of this movie be that it break the horror movie visual mold and and flood it with light and create a fascinating tension between plot and setting .