10 Lost Horror Movies You Can't Watch

F.W. Murnau and Conrad Veidt are two legends of cinema history; the former being the director of 1922’s Nosferatu, and the latter being the star of The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari and The Man Who Laughs. In the world of German Expressionist Horror, they were two of the great pioneers, so a film directed by Murnau and starring Conrad Veidt would be a great success on paper.

The Head Of Janus was written by Hans Janowitz, who wrote the movie as an adaptation of The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, which was incredibly popular at the time. Alongside that, the cinematographer for the film was Karl Freund, cinematographer of Metropolis, The Golem and Dracula.

With so much going for it, The Head Of Janus was supposed to be a great success, much like Nosferatu and The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. Sadly, however, that wasn’t the case. Although scripts and production notes on the film exist, the film itself did not.

As to why, one theory is that the idea of ‘duel personality horror’ wasn’t as groundbreaking in Germany as it was in the UK, and the film died silently. Another is that the film was so close to the original novel, that the author ordered all copies to be destroyed as to not taint his original work. All that exists are a few stills and many different variations of one poster, but the movie is sadly long gone.