No Place Like Home Nosferatu (1922) silent film with live organ accompaniment by Peter Krasinski

With both Robert Eggers' remake and Ryan Coogler's reinvention of the genre with Sinners, this seems an apt time to revisit the OG vampire film. In F.W. Murnau's haunting masterpiece, a simple real-estate transaction leads an intrepid businessman deep into the superstitious heart of Transylvania. There he encounters the otherworldly Count Orlok (Max Schreck) who soon after embarks upon a cross-continental voyage to take up residence in a distant new land, along with his shipful of plague rats.

The use of real locations instead of stylized studio sets, and special effects such as negative exposure and fast-speed motion make this first (and unauthorized) adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula one of the eeriest and most magical. Its treatment of themes from the novel—like xenophobia, antisemitism, homophobia and a suspicion toward scientific progress—offers insight into the time in which it was made, and how much things have changed in the last 100…