Before Sound

In his article “Before Sound,” Ian Conrich addresses the development of the horror film at a transitional moment in the history of cinema: the latter half of the 1920s, when synchronized sound was beginning to transform the medium. He mentions Universal’s horror classics of the early 1930s, which include the first entries in the Frankenstein, Dracula, and Mummy franchises. These were horror films that exploited a wide range of sounds (think of Frankenstein’s characteristic grunt, or Dracula’s sinister laugh). But they were also heavily indebted to the look of German Expressionist films like Murnau’s Faust.

What does Conrich have to say about “the neglected 1920s”? 

What are your thoughts on F. W. Murnau’s film Faust (1926)