Nosferatu

F.W. Murnau couldn't secure the rights to Bram Stoker's Dracula, so he changed the names and made the most terrifying vampire film ever put on screen. Count Orlok — with his rat-like teeth, skeletal fingers, and that unforgettable shadow creeping up the staircase — is a creature of pure pestilence, and Max Schreck's performance remains the most unsettling portrayal of a vampire in cinema history. Stoker's estate sued and a court ordered all copies destroyed, but prints survived in private collections, and the film endured to become the foundation of an entire horror tradition. Every vampire film since exists in Orlok's long shadow.