[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)

An unofficial German adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula in which pretty much all the names and places are different with the great vampire now being named Count Orlok.

A silent classic which in truth plods along going precisely nowhere until Orlok sets sail for Wisberg. All the situations are present and correct but the visit to Orlok's castle of Thomas Hutter (Jonathan Harker) takes up the bulk of the film and it's only the last half hour in which the action really ramps up when Orlok's journey begins.

The scenes on the ship are brilliantly realised with rats living in the coffins full of earth prior to Orlok stalking the deck killing those he comes across. The best sequences are in the last few minutes with Orlok preying on Ellen Hutter in her bed. There's a genuine creepiness to this that remains a century later and proves mesmeric viewing.

Max Schreck who is immortalised as the vampire Count Orlok is simply amazing. Looking more like a creature of the night than any other vampire since. He gives a genuinely haunting and at times scary performance. When you compare him to Bela Lugosi who starred as Dracula in the first talky version of the novel nine years later there's really no comparison. One's a camp, starey thespian whilst the other's a f*cking frightening, bald corpse like figure who sweeps through the streets like the plague in a film with a final half hour that reeks of putrefaction.