Nosferatu

Nosferatu (1922) is F. W. Murnau's silent horror film, and you can watch it online on iFILM. A young clerk named Hutter leaves Bremen for a remote castle in the Carpathians to sell Count Orlok a house back in town. He has no idea what waits for him there.

Max Schreck's Orlok is no charming aristocrat. He is a gaunt thing with rat teeth, pointed ears, and fingers that end in claws. Schreck played him so convincingly that rumors spread he might be a real vampire. By the time Hutter understands the truth and races home, plague travels with the count, and a wave of death reaches Bremen. Only Hutter's wife Ellen (Greta Schröder) grasps how to stop him, and what it will cost her.

The studio never secured the rights to Bram Stoker's Dracula, so names were changed and a court later ordered every print destroyed. The film barely survived. Crawling shadows, double exposure, a coach sped up to look unnatural: Murnau's tricks went on to shape the whole genre. Stream Nosferatu (1922) online on iFILM.