Nosferatu eine Symphonie des Grauens (translation: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror) is a 1922 German silent horror movie by F. W. Murnau. It was based on the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker.
The movie was shot in 1921 and was released in Germany in 1922 and in the US in 1929. It is about a vampire or "Nosferatu" named Count Orlok (starring Max Schreck) who lives in a castle on top of a hill. The movie is in the public domain in America but not in Germany.
The movie was a commercial failure and caused the company Prana Film to be shut down due to copyright infringement. The movie was the only movie by Prana Film.
The movie got a strong cult following. Not only this, the movie has received overwhelmingly positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes it got a "Certified Fresh" label: 98% of critics gave the film a positive review with a "fresh" rating, based on 46 reviews.
In 2010, it was ranked twenty-first in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema".