Considered to be one of the first horror films, "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror" was released in 1922. The actor Max Schreck played the vampire Nosferatu; his character was gaunt, with unnaturally pointed ears, equally pointed teeth and long curved fingernails. The sinister count becomes a bloodsucker at night, demonic and tormented at the same time.

Nosferatu is brought onto a ship in a coffin. During the voyage, almost the entire crew dies of the plague. In the end, only the mate and the captain are left. When Nosferatu appears on deck, the mate throws himself off the ship. The captain also does not survive the voyage. When the ship arrives in port, it's discovered not a living soul remains on board. Well — almost.

Nosferatu brings plague and death to the port city — only the blood of a girl can stop him. A young woman sacrifices herself; he sets upon her, forgetting that the morning is already here. As the sunlight hits him, he dissolves into smoke. Countless vampire films and stories have followed this pattern — and the fascination with the bloodsucker continues to this day.

The designer Albin Grau not only created this poster but had the initial idea of making a vampire film and was able to convince director Friedrich Murnau to come on board. Grau was ultimately the film's artistic director who designed the iconic masks and costumes, and also created promotional graphics, in line with the prevailing German Expressionist aesthetic.

The exhibition of the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection in Berlin's National Gallery shows many of the original publicity materials, and also the artistic influences informing the artwork, such as this poster. The vast array of promotional material for the film included a printed essay on vampirism. The program booklet also helped to elicit the promise of a frightful cinematic experience.

In the Berlin exhibition, on view until April 23, 2023, the film images are juxtaposed with drawings, prints and paintings by artists such as Alfred Kubin, Francisco de Goya or Caspar David Friedrich. The above image is by Czech graphic artist Frantisek Kobliha, who, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's nightmarish stories, created a series of eerie etchings.

This painting entitled "Song in the Twilight," by Franz Sedlacek, an Austrian painter of the New Objectivity school, seems comparatively peaceful. However, the warm-looking atmosphere of this room with its muted colors and the person at the piano is deceptive. For the flying bat in the room casts no shadow and could turn into a bloodsucking monster when darkness falls.

He's back! The insane killer Michael Myers from the legendary 1978 movie "Halloween," when the young Laurie Strode — played by Jamie Lee Curtis — was the only survivor of a massacre in the small town of Haddonfield in Illinois. The new "Halloween" movie practically picks up where the old (and its successors) left off — including the 40-year-older Jamie Lee Curtis.

In 1978, John Carpenter sent the mother of all Halloween movies on a journey that has not ended to this day. The cheaply produced but incredibly effective shocker reaped millions of dollars — and ensured a successful cinema franchise. The new Halloween film repeats the formula: it was produced relatively cheaply but has been very successful at the box office.

Carpenter was especially inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" from 1960 when he created "Halloween." Before this groundbreaking psychological thriller, horror movies had been defined by the appearance of monsters, vampires and other such scary figures. Hitchcock's trick in "Psycho": Norman Bates, who was sympathetic at first, later turns out to be a human monster.

In this "New York gothic" film the viewer doesn't know the true source of the horror. Are the nightmares and paranoia only in the mind of the expectant mother, Rosemary (Mia Farrow)? The film's fame was tragically sealed when wife of director Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered a year later while pregnant. Then in 1980, John Lennon was shot in front of the house where it was filmed.

As a new horror genre took hold by the mid-1970s, director William Friedkin elevated the creep factor a step further. His shocker "The Exorcist" turned an initially cute child into a fearsome creature possessed by Satan. This led to some nervous breakdowns in the cinemas during the premiere screenings — and to unbelievably high ticket sales.

Like the film itself, the locations in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece psychothriller, "The Shining," are particularly unforgettable, including the surreal, labyrinthine Overlook Hotel in which Jack Nicholson's character, the writer Jack Torrance, descends into violence-fueled madness. "The Shining" doesn't need to show a lot of blood — it's creepy enough as it is.

Shortly after "The Shining," the minimalist, psycho-horror genre gave way to a new era of splatter films utilisng the latest make-up and special effects technology — and a whole lot of fake blood. The new horror genre arguably was birthed when director Wes Craven terrified audiences with his Freddy Krueger character in 1984's "A Nightmare on Elm Street," which had endless remakes and sequels.

Wes Craven also made "Scream," the 1996 black comedy slasher film that inspired the like's of "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012). It begins with a few high school kids who are preparing for an evening watching videos until their small town is terrorized by a sadistic murderer. Kids are more likely to stream their films nowadays —yet horror, and Halloween, movie nights remain especially popular

A horror film classic that succeeded without much blood or brutal knife attacks is 2001's "The Others" by Chilean-Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar. Nicole Kidman plays the mother of two children who are allergic to light. The horror film, shot exclusively in a Spanish castle, was especially compelling due to its more subtle scare tactics and a surprising ending.

In addition to the new version of "Halloween," the supernatural thriller "Suspiria" might be the most eagerly awaited horror remake of the year. Italian director Luca Guadagnino dared to revive the 1977 horror classic by Dario Argento which is about evil witches — and this time is set in Berlin, in the year Argento's film was made, as an American dancer encounters a series of brutal murders.