Schloss Vogelod (The Haunted Castle) (1921) (DVD)

One of the earliest (and eeriest) works by the legendary filmmaker F. W. Murnau (Nosferatu), Schloß Vogelöd: Die Enthullung eines Geheimnisses [Castle Vogelod: The Revelation of a Secret, often referred to as The Haunted Castle] provides a vital glimpse into the development of the uncanny-suffused expressionistic style that became Murnau's hallmark and legacy.

A party of aristocrats assemble at a country manor for an autumn hunt. But a long-lingering question threatens once more to rear its head: who really murdered the Baroness's late husband?

With a riveting nightmare sequence that foreshadows the nocturnal fantasias of both Nosferatu and Phantom, and a masquerade conceit that looks backward to Feuillade and forward to Murnau's own Die Finanzen des Grossherzogs, this languorous mood-piece represents the latent material that will figure into a master director's later breakthroughs. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present F. W. Murnau's Schloß Vogelöd on DVD in the UK for the first time.