First up, NOSFERATU(1922)
"Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" was made in 1922, so its silent (duh). Directed by F.W. Murnau, it is essentially the story of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but the Stoker family would not give Murnau the rights to the story. So he changed the name and made it anyway. I think it was released in the U.S. in 1929. It is a creepy movie, and the flickering of the old, faded film only adds to the creep factor. It fits in the horror category nicely, but it also counts as a pure German drama. Dark sets, dark acting, existentialist overtones. Pure German cinema. The most amazing part of the movie is the performance of Max Schreck as Count Orlaf (ahem, Dracula). Decked out in full face makeup and long sharpened fingernails, he creeps through the scenes like a real vampire. In fact, it was widely believed that Schreck was a real vampire, and that Murnau had hired him to give the film authenticity. Accidents on the set only added to the rumors.
P.S. "Schreck" is actually the German word for terror. Neat!!
Here is Schreck in a classic still from the movie.
But that brings me to my next film. SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE(2000)
A dark comedy based on the premise that Murnau did in fact hire a vampire for his film. Murnau, played by John Malkovich, is portrayed as a director obsessed with perfection. He hires Max Schreck (played by Willem Dafoe in an Oscar nominated performance), even though he knows Schreck is dangerous. Hilarity ensues when Murnau finds out that working with a real vampire can have serious setback on a film set. Schreck keeps, uh, eating the crew. It is a really clever movie, and of course the performances are awesome. I love the meshing of horror and comedy, because in general I am not a horror movie person. So...go see it. You don't really have to see Nosferatu first, but it is nice to have some frame of reference for the movie.
Here is Dafoe in the same role.
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