Our Take

Faust (1926) - Murnau returns to paint a cosmic battle between light and darkness with a brush dipped in shadows and plague. The opening sequence, with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding through the clouds, is a visual assault that still feels like a transmission from the mouth of hell. It’s a grand, operatic deal with the devil that turns the screen into a canvas of supernatural dread and soaring redemption. It’s big, it’s loud, and it smells of sulfur and old-world magic. A towering achievement of gothic expressionism that haunts the soul.