FILM OF THE WEEK: Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht (Nosferatu The Vampyre) (1979)

A remake of F.W Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) (itself an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula) by another great director of German cinema, Werner Herzog. On the one hand, Phantom Der Nacht remains true to Murnau's vision.

Heavily impressionistic and the very distinctive design of the villainous vampire. On the other, the film not only brings sound and colour but it's closer to the original Dracula story (in that the characters are actually given the same names as their literary counterparts) with Klaus Kinski (with aid from Herzog's screenplay) providing a more tragic, even almost sympathetic, portrayal of Dracula. Add in tons of atmosphere and eerie beauty (best demonstrated by Harker's trek towards Castle Dracula, or Lucy wandering through a town-square filled by plague-maddened townspeople) this is to my mind, the greatest vampire film ever made.