Rish Outfield's reviews
Being a Film major in college, I saw a few silent films (I admit I slept through a lot of them, though), and I had forgotten the oddness and coolness of them. Of course, I am insane.
Nosferatu, Symphony of Terror is considered to be the first Horror movie (though I believe The Golum came earlier). Due to its documentation in the recent Shadow of the Vampire, it may be destined for a resurgence in popularity.
It is shot in monochrome, but one of those that changes colours--sometimes amber, sometimes blue, green, or red. When they have a special effects shot, they go to a negative image.
By today's standards, it's ludicrous, silly, perhaps even unwatchable (although I love that mosquitos are blamed for vampire bites)--but imagine being a viewer in the '20s, seeing a vampire for the first time--the evil of the undead. Imagine being a kid back then, seeing it with your folks on a Saturday night (maybe your dad had to read the dialogue cards to you). Imagine trying to go to sleep that night, having SEEN--not just read or imagined--a ghoul in living Black & White.
Not too shabby then, eh?

The tyranist's thoughts
At the risk of sounding like an ass, I didn't care for this movie at all. The reason that this may make me sound like I'm spiteful and bitter is that for some reason, inexplicable to me, people love this movie.
Based on the novel Dracula, this is the earliest horror film that we will review for you. It features Max Schrek, who I must admit was very good, and not much else. If you are familiar with the plot of Dracula then you won't find things too very different here. Well, at least you won't feel like you are in unfamiliar territory.
Now I have to admit that I'm not terribly prone to silent films to begin with, and I am a modern, jaded horror movie fan, but this one lacks so much that could have been nice. Instead of dwelling on all the bits that I didn't enjoy though, I'm going to emphasize a couple things that I liked. First, is Max Schrek. He is perhaps the creepiest man to have ever played Dracula. And he does it well. There were several moments that are clearly borrowed later for other films which would make this a trendsetter. Still, as creepy as he was, I found none of the rest of the movie even a little bit disturbing. Hmm. I can't think of a second thing I liked.
I'm going to recommend that you see this one anyway. It is significant historically for the genre, but I'm not going to tell you that it is one of the greatest films ever made. I would be lying.