German Production. Silent film

Synopsis: An estate agents Clerk (Gustav von Wangenheim) in the city of Breman leaves his bride (Greta Schroeder) to conduct business in the distant Carpathian mountains with an eccentric client named Graf Orlok (Max Schreck). During a long and hazardous journey, the closer he gets to his destination, the more terrified are the people he meets. What he finds when he reached Orlock's sinister castle is enough to make the flesh of the most devoted horror fan creep.

On first release, the critics were divided and the paying public were often bewildered by the director's brilliant use of time and space distortion in this unparalleled horror masterpiece. It was the very first film to be based on the Dracula character created by Bram Stocker. Names were changed and locations switched from Transylvania to the City of Bremen, but the Stocker estate, who had not given permission for the film, recognised the similarities and sued the films German priducers. An English judge ordered that all copies of the film to be destroyed and the negative burned. Fortunately, the order was not enforceable in Germany so the print survived. (Synopsis taken from the DVD cover information).

This is a 12-certificate film .