You'd think a black and white silent film, that was in the public domain now, would be easy to watch. In reality my situation made it fairly hard to watch this right away. From the internet going out to having to find a different spot in order to abstain from wasting gigabytes in another, it was quite the short yet annoying journey. It's also a shame since I prefer to watch an entire movie right away so as to review it as soon as possible in order to express that catharsis while it's still fresh. But I'm not that disappointed as I've spent most of my life seeing more references of this movie than the actual thing in its entirety (I even tried to watch the 70s version yet that was flat out impossible to watch), but I finally watched it. Of course what's even harder to do now (given my process being botched-up) is express in words. I mean I certainly want to talk about how beautifully intricate this film turned out for its time. From the dreamlike visuals of its landscapes, complex architecture in its set design that lives up to its expressionist subgenre (if not must've cost thousands for their time), or the fact it influenced too many films to name (Hausu, The Wrong Man, Beyond the Black Rainbow, the Devil's Backbone, most of Clive Barlker's directorial catalogue, etc.) if not served as a precursor to British films from the 70s and beyond that based their horror off of nature (during the polyp and Venus flytrap scenes) such as Alien, Godsend, or Attack the Block, this film was a treat for its time. But it's a film that has existed for an entire Century now, so it nearly feels futile to express an opinion on it (unless the only Expressionist horror you want me to pay homage to right now is The Phantom hour). I mean Count Orlock's design is what would be the very template for horror movie monster designs for decades to come. Plus let's just say the whole thing with the plague feels inevitably (if not all too) timely in these 20s. And of course Count Orlock's iconic scenes don't exactly happen right away. I guess I just think the film speaks for itself and is deserving of at least one watch for any horror film fan with easy access to it. Even if it was the faithfully silent version that I chose.

Note: To further add to that journey I ALSO had to take a picture of the words above in their original format and reconvert them to text for reasons beyond my grasp.