Nosferatu F.W. Murnau

In this highly influential silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok (Max Schreck) summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. The eerie Orlok seeks to buy a house near Hutter and his wife, Ellen (Greta Schroeder). After Orlok reveals his vampire nature, Hutter struggles to escape the castle, knowing that Ellen is in grave danger. Meanwhile Orlok's servant, Knock (Alexander Granach), prepares for his master to arrive at his new home.

Nosferatu Director F.W. Murnau found Max Schreck "strikingly ugly" in real life and decided the vampire makeup would suffice with just pointy ears and false teeth.  The character of Nosferatu is only seen on screen for a bit less than nine minutes in total throughout the whole film. 

f. W. Murnau Director This is the very first time in film history in which a vampire is killed by sunlight. F.W Murnau knew that he would be sued for borrowing heavily from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula without permission so he changed the ending so that he could say this film and Dracula were not exactly the same.  Filmed between August and October 1921 Gustav von Wangenheim was not director F.W. Murnau's first or even his second choice, but his third one. 

Stolen from Bram Stoker’s Dracula The film, shot in 1921 and released in 1922, was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel (for instance, "vampire" became "Nosferatu" and "Count Dracula" became "Count Orlok"). Stoker's heirs sued over the adaptation, and a court ruling ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. However, a few prints of Nosferatu survived, and the film came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema The only complete, original copy is said to be owned by the German Max Schreck collector Jens GeutebrÃck.

Fun Facts Included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.  Still, after 85 years, virtually all of the exteriors are left intact in the cities of Wismar and Lubeck.  The movie was banned in Sweden due to excessive horror. The ban was finally lifted in 1972  As of 2015, it is Rotten Tomatoes' second best-reviewed horror film of all time.

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