As part of the British Film Institute’s Gothic season, German director F. W. Murnau’s genre defining cult classic 1922 film Nosferatu, the first ever screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, will be screened throughout the country; actor Max Schreck presents the original manifestation of the screen vampire, a far cry from the prettied modern incarnations, his skeletal fingers and bat like features still instill terror nearly a century later.

The expressionist adaptation’s survival is made more remarkable since its existence was banned after heirs of Stoker, who wrote the original novel in 1897, sued and a court ruling ordered all copies of the film be destroyed leaving only a single print copy to survive.

The film will be projected alongside a reconstitution of the original score, composed by Hans Erdmann; originally created to be performed live by a string quartet as the film was projected, meaning much of the original music has been lost over the years.