Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was released in 1922 and was an unauthorised version of Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Thomas Hutter is an employee at a real estate firm in Wisborg and is sent by his employer Knock to visit Count Orlok in the Carpathian Mountains to finalize the sale of a house.He leaves behind his wife Ellen with friends.Close to his final destination, Hutter boards at an inn, where the locals become frightened at the mere mention of Orlok's name, and discourage him from travelling to his castle during the night. The next day the coach that Hutter has hired to get to the Count Orlock's castle will only take him half way and he left to walk the rest of the journey.He is welcomed by Count Orlok whose grotesque facial features hidden by his hat. At this stage he seems nothing more than an eccentric gentleman.Hutter wakes up to an empty castle with fresh wounds on his neck, which he attributes to mosquitoes. That night he is joined by Orlok and they sign the documents for the sale of the house facing Hutter's.

Hutter finds the book The Book of the Vampires, which was in his room at the inn, and begins to suspect that Count Orlok is in fact Nosferatu.

Exploring the castle hutter finds the crypt where Orlock is resting in a coffin. Filled with terror Hutter flees from the castle. And Orlok's coffins are loaded onto a boat.

When Hutter returns home he finds Knock in a confinement cell where he tries to bite the neck of the doctors. Hutter leaves the hospital and tries to warn his town of the soon to be arriving danger.

Directed by German Expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau and scripted by Henrik Galeen an it was the first in a string of Dracula adaptations.

However the film company had failed to to get permission from Stoker's estate to produce their film adaptation of his popular novel.

In 1925 a court order decreed that all prints of the film be destroyed. However some did survive.

Despite this Nosferatu has become one of the most popular Dracula themed movies blending early ideas of horror with artfulness.

It is distinct and memorable which is quite a feat for a movie that was released in 1922, just at the end of the silent era.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw