Part of Mark Kermode's 'Europe in 25 films: the critics’ choice' - featured in The Observer. One of the classics of German Expressionism, directed by one of cinema's finest filmmakers, this loose adaptation of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' is a poetic, dream-like fantasy. Max Schreck is ghastly as the vampire, Count Orlock, who desires the blood of Greta Schröder's Ellen, the wife of an estate agent who visits the count's castle. Unlike later interpretations, Schreck's monster is more animal than man - a truly hideous creation is accentuated by Murnau's masterly use of light and darkness.