"It's a stylishly well-executed old-fashioned horror-suspense thriller that's laced with a macabre humor, arty German expressionism, an uncommon architectural style and sets a strong mysterious mood. It was a forerunner of the Universal horror films of the 1930s, which copied many of its eerie effects such as clutching hands, disappearing bodies, a masked killer, secret passageways, and sliding panels. It came at the apex of the silents, when such films as Garbo in Love and De Mille's The King of Kings also appeared. Critics at the time said it lifted the mystery genre into the realm of art. Though even creaky for that time, Leni plays it more for laughs than scares." - Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews