F W Murnau's horror classic of 1922 was the first screen adaption of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Now newly remastered and accompanied by James Bernard’s acclaimed orchestral score, it will be released on Blu-ray by the BFI on 23 November 2015.
Special features include a video essay by Christopher Frayling and the short films Le Vampire by French filmmaker Jean Painlevé and The Mistletoe Bough by early film pioneer Percy Stow, which features a new score by Saint Etienne’s Pete Wiggs.
As potent and disturbing now as ever, Nosferatu paved the way for the future of gothic cinema. Max Schreck’s Count Orlok, bald, bat-eared and rabbit toothed, is at once terrifying and pitiable, his need for blood, for living warmth is palpable to the point of agony.
Featuring some of the most iconic images in cinema, Murnau's interpretation of this great vampire tale has been much imitated not least by Werner Herzog, whose Nosferatu the Vampyre is an admiring tribute.
