Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is the first silent film for me on this blog and is also the oldest film I have written about on here and, given the 1922 release date, it might be hard to top what is possible the grandfather of horror films. Some film fans might think of Vampyr but that would not release for another ten years and so we are well and truly looking at the birthplace for cinematic thrillers.

Just like the 2024 adaptation, Nosferatu, the story here is an unofficial adaptation of Dracula where a young office clerk to a faraway castle in the Transylvanian wilderness to meet a mysterious client, Count Orlok. Little do they know that the Count is in fact a vampire who quickly expresses a keen interest in the office worker's fiancé... 

Watching this after Robert Eggers' adaptation, it is remarkable to see how alike both versions are but the absence of dialogue does not undercut the atmosphere of 100+ year old film. German director, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, does an excellent job at bringing the story to life with the technology available at the time and he aided in very good company by Hans Erdmann's terrifically unsettling score.

The idea of watching a silent film is a hard one to sell today but any horror or thriller fan will find more than plenty to enjoy in seeing one of the earliest adaptations of Dracula brought to screen. If some say dialogue is noise then this film will be bliss to many and I was thoroughly immersed from start to finish. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror gets my full recommendation and cinema owes much to this.