Eureka! Entertainment have revealed the new trailer agead of the home video release of an eagerly awaited new restoration of F. W. Murnau’s legendary silent cinema horror classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), expertly restored in Germany by the world-renowned Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung (FWMS).
The earliest adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has become one of the most iconic and of all horror films – and silent films – in the history of cinema, ranked #21 in Empire magazine’s 2010 poll of the 100 greatest films in world cinema and included in the recent Critic’s Poll by Sight & Sound magazine as one of the 250 greatest films ever made. With an incomparable lead performance as the vampire by Max Schreck — whom some believe to have been an actual vampire, it is the film behind E. Elias Merhige’s John Malkovich-starring Shadow of the Vampire and the inspiration behind Werner Herzog’s Klaus Kinski-starring 1979 feature adaptation, released theatrically by the BFI on 1 November 2013.
Following a UK & Eire theatrical run where it will open in cinemas nationwide from Friday October 25, 2013, Blu-ray, Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) SteelBook and DVD editions featuring a raft of special features to be announced nearer the release date, will be released as part of Eureka! Entertainment’s award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series on 18th November 2013.
An iconic film of the German expressionist cinema, and one of the most famous of all silent movies, F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror continues to haunt — and, indeed, terrify — modern audiences with the unshakable power of its images. By teasing a host of occult atmospherics out of dilapidated set-pieces and innocuous real-world locations alike, Murnau captured on celluloid the deeply-rooted elements of a waking nightmare, and launched the signature “Murnau-style” that would change cinema history forever.
In this first-ever screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a simple real-estate transaction leads an intrepid businessman deep into the superstitious heart of Transylvania. There he encounters the otherworldly Count Orlok — portrayed by the legendary Max Schreck, in a performance the very backstory of which has spawned its own mythology — who soon after embarks upon a cross-continental voyage to take up residence in a distant new land… and establish his ambiguous dominion. As to whether the count’s campaign against the plague-wracked populace erupts from satanic decree, erotic compulsion, or the simple impulse of survival — that remains, perhaps, the greatest mystery of all in this film that’s like a blackout…
Remade by Werner Herzog in 1979 (and inspiring films as diverse as Abel Ferrara’s King of New York and The Addiction, and E. Elias Merhige’s Shadow of the Vampire), F. W. Murnau’s surreal 1922 cine-fable remains the original and landmark entry in the entire global tradition of “the horror film”. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present, newly restored on 1080p Blu-ray at long last, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror in its definitive restoration, complete with original intertitles and accompanied by the score that played with the film at the time of its initial release
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