Paris, 1482: Now with Extra Judgment

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This week on The Introverted Obelisk, we scale the heights of tragedy and stone with The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)—the film that gave Lon Chaney the keys to cinematic immortality and taught audiences that monsters aren’t always born, sometimes they’re sculpted by cruelty. Beneath the shadow of Notre Dame’s great cathedral, Quasimodo rings his bells, worships from afar, and discovers that love and loneliness echo just as loudly from the belfry.

We’ll explore how Chaney’s self-inflicted makeup turned empathy into horror, how Universal’s massive Paris set nearly bankrupted them before Frankenstein and Dracula could finish the job, and how this silent epic gave voice to every outsider history tried to hide. Expect cathedrals, torches, and heartbreak—with just enough Obe-brand sarcasm to remind you that the Middle Ages were not known for their HR policies.

It’s been a hundred years since Quasimodo first cried “Sanctuary!” from those stone towers—and the bells still ring.

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