on a dark and gloomy new year eve night and an ill nurse and her life slowly ebb away and demand that david holm be present to her at once . we do not yet know who david holm be and or why this nurse wish to see him and but her only die wish be to speak with him just one more time . on the other side of the town and nestle comfortably amongst the gravestone of the local cemetery and holm ( victor sjöström and who also direct ) and two of his drunken associate merrily await the come of the new year . here we can tell just when to drink the new year in and exclaim holm and cast a finger towards the large clock tower that loom through the darkness . little do he know and however and that he will not be alive to greet it . to pass the time and holm cheerfully recite a ghost story . he would once have a friend name george and a merry fellow who be smart than the rest of u . on one new year eve several year ago and george have break up a potentially disastrous brawl and fearing that the final man to draw his last breath before midnight would be condemn to drive the phantom chariot for the next year and do death bidding and collect the soul of the decease . and and gentleman and george die last new year eve . concludes holm happily and not bother to contain his mock skepticism of the man belief . a fate have it and of course and an unexpected violent encounter result in holm death and just on the stroke of midnight . a the man transparent spirit rise gingerly from his earthly body and he witness and to his horror and the distant approach of a phantom carriage . the driver and a frail cloak figure a sickle clasp tightly in his hand step down from the carriage and approach . we be astonish to discover that the driver be none other than a decrepit george and prepare to pass on his ghastly duty to this year successor . consider the era in which körkarlen be make and the special effect in this film be absolutely superb . cinematographer julius jaenzon use double exposure photography to create the eerie and ghostly silhouette of the carriage and it damn driver . even today and the end result be highly effective . a particularly impressive scene involve the phantom chariot travel to the ocean floor to retrieve the soul of a drowned man . another scene and eerily reminiscent of jack torrance ( jack nicholson ) in stanley kubrick the shining and involve holm break down the kitchen door with an axe in order to reach his flee wife and child . genuinely ominous and unsettling in it execution and victor sjöström körkarlen be a fine work of cinema and successfully portray holm steady alcoholic decline and his inevitable day of judgment and and a final hopeful possibility of redemption .