S.W.’s Scores
Continuity
+3
Entertainment
+3
Rewatchability
+1
CastMax Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
StreamingCriterion Channel, Tubi, Kanopy
S.W.’s Verdict
Max Schreck didn't play a vampire — he became something that shouldn't exist on film. Every frame with Count Orlok feels wrong in a way that a hundred years of horror refinement hasn't managed to replicate. The shadow climbing the stairs is still the single most effective shot in horror history. The rest of the film is standard silent-era melodrama with intertitles that slow everything to a crawl. But when Orlok is on screen, nothing else in 1922 cinema comes close to generating actual dread.