NOSFERATU

One of the most powerful films made in the opening decades of cinema, master filmmaker Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's 1922 silent Nosferatu (deliciously subtitled A Symphony of Horror) introduced the world to its initial terrifying image of a movie vampire. Distorted, elongated ears and fingers, a wizened, skeletal face and rat-like fangs made Max Schreck's creature of the night the model for all to come. Faithful to Bram Stoker's chilling 19^th century novel with all its insinuation that the vampire is a threat not only to his immediate victims but the very fabric of society itself.