A relic certainly, but a fascinating one. A mute film photographed in black & white, perhaps the screen's first great monster movie, this dramatises a Jewish legend, as a rabbi in Prague creates a clay giant and animates him through sorcery.
Intended to protect the ghetto from pogroms, the golem is twisted by love and runs riot until a small girl ends his murderous rampage.
Director-star Paul Wegener's clay man is a little comical, the Frankenstein monster with a girly haircut, but the wonderfully grotesque Prague sets and the alchemical atmosphere remain potent. Leaving the viewer with a constantly un-nerving feeling and a wish to see more of this hideous creation at work.