Review of Nosferatu (1922) by Damon G — 01 Nov 2014

Celebrated German director FW Murnau plundered Bram Stoker's Dracula without permission for this 1922 ground-breaker, and was successfully sued by Stoker's wife - all prints were ordered to be destroyed, but a few survived.

The result is the most frightening incarnation of the vampire count in horror history. With his grasping claws, pointed fangs, bald pate and white cadaverous features, Count Orlock, played by the hideous Max Schreck, creeps through Murnau's archetypal silent imagery with a mesmerising authority that retains a surprising amount of tension.

The chilling finale, highlighted by Schreck's terrifying shadow outside his victim's door (and enhanced by Hammer composer James Bernard's new, specially commissioned score for the restored print) is one of the classic sequences in the genre and packs a powerful punch even by today's standards.