Nosferatu (1922)

Continuing with this month's halloween theme, I present one of my favorites films:

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors

The first and only production of Prana Film, Nosferatu was released in 1922. Unable to attain the rights to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Enrico Dieckmann and Albin Grau hired literary Expressionist Henrik Galeen to compose a screen play of a similar nature. Nosferatu replaced the term vampire and Orlok replaced Dracula but many elements of the story remained the same. Prana Films was later sued by Stoker's widow, thus putting an end to their movie career. 

Filming of the movie was done in a meticulous fashion. Having only one camera, and thus only one negative, filming was planned and shot with care. After the release of the film, the perfect shots and lighting were criticized as being not suitable for the horror genre. Personally, I think the technically perfect shots are part of what makes this film so amazing. 

Starring

Max Schreck as Count Orlok

Greta Schröder as Ellen Hutter

Through the wonder of public domain and youtube, I am proud to present Nosferatu in its entirety. 

If you've got an hour and a half to kill, it's really something to behold. While watching, consider the use of shadow in the film, the wonderful music and the fact that this was filmed in 1921 (seeing as how we are living in such a vampire obsessed world right now, this film was waaaayyyy before its time). 

Enjoy!