Dracula (1931) [Blu-ray] [Standard]

The first on screen depiction of Dracula occurs in F. W. Murnau's horror classic Nosferatu! Real estate agent Jonathan Harker (Wangenheim), travels to Transylvania to visit a new client, Count Dracula (Schreck). Although the locals warn Harker away from Dracula's castle, the agent pursues the sale. Staying overnight, Harker feels an odd darkness in this castle, where the Count is oddly asleep during the daytime. After reading a book about vampires, Harker begins to suspect that the Count is really Nosferatu. Meanwhile, Dracula hides in a shipment of coffins and arrives in Wisbourg, Germany, to take ownership of his new home, across the way from Harker's home. As locals mysteriously die, town doctors diagnose a plague... but Harker suspects a more nefarious cause. He races home to save his town and most importantly save his wife, Nina (Schröder). New score composed and performed by pianist Keith Taylor.

An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu is the quintessential silent vampire film, crafted by legendary German director F. W. Murnau (Sunrise, Faust, the Last Laugh). Rather than depicting Dracula as a shape-shifting monster or debonair gentleman, Murnau's Graf Orlok (as portrayed by Max Schreck) is a nightmarish, spidery creature of bulbous head and taloned claws - perhaps the most genuinely disturbing incarnation of vampirism yet envisioned. Nosferatu was an atypical expressionist film in that much of it was shot on location. While directors such as Lang and Lubitsch built vast forests and entire towns within the studio, Nosferatu's landscapes, villages and castle were actual locations in the Carpathian Mountains. Murnau was thus able to infuse the story with the subtle tones of nature both pure and fresh as well as twisted and sinister. Remastered in high definition for the first time and making it's Blu-ray debut exclusively from Kino Classics.

Dracula (1931) [DVD]