F.W. Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece, “Nosferatu”, is far and away my favorite vampire movie. As a matter of fact, I’d rank it among my top ten favorite movies, period. I adore the visual style of Count Orlok, though because “Nosferatu” is really nothing more than a thinly veiled adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, you don’t get to see much of Orlok in modern vampire cinema. Even the 1979 remake of “Nosferatu” by Werner Herzog went with the Count Dracula moniker over Orlok. So E. Elias Merhige’s “Shadow of the Vampire”, a faux behind the scenes account of the making of “Nosferatu”, felt like one of those movies made expressly for me.
F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) is Germany’s finest motion picture director, hailed for the realism contained in his films. Murnau’s latest project, an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” entitled “Nosferatu”, will be his most epic masterpiece yet. Unbeknownst to his producers, cast and crew, Murnau has taken the liberty of casting a genuine vampire, one Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe), to play the part of the blood-thirsty Count Orlok. However, the centuries-old vampire proves incapable of combating his own urge to feed, continually dining on Murnau’s crew members. With his crew dropping one by one, Murnau’s sanity begins to unravel, leaving him to face up to the horror his obsession with realism has unleashed.
The real Max Schreck may not have been an actual vampire, but he was a very unusual man; a loner with a morbid personality who enjoyed playing frightening characters (“schreck” is, in fact, German for “fright”). An ugly guy, he required very little makeup or prosthetic enhancements to portray Orlok in “Nosferatu”. “Shadow of the Vampire” takes it one step further and posits the scenario of “what if Schreck was a vampire?” and offers a fictionalized account of the production of the film. A fairly brilliant false history, it takes one of the creepiest movies ever made and dials it up several notches.
Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck was an act of casting genius, no doubt about it. Dafoe is a very, er, bizarre-looking individual and just falls into the role so perfectly. The character of Schreck is both frightening and pathetic in this film, as he waxes nostalgic over the glory days when he drank from golden cups in great halls instead of cracked jugs in dank caves. There’s an especially inspired scene where, in a drunken stupor, he critiques Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” with some particularly thoughtful commentary.
John Malkovich plays the obsessive and quirky Murnau and does so with his usual method of character acting. He's fantastic, though I honestly haven’t seen very many of his other movies. All that really comes to mind is “Con Air”, though that’s a flick I should probably make an effort to forget. Other cast members, such as Eddie Izzard as Gustav von Wangenheim and Cary Elwes as Wagner, provide some excellent back-up performances, but don’t really stand out as anything spectacular. The movie is all about Schreck and Murnau, so they steal the bulk of the spotlight.
Director E. Elias Merhige does a fantastic job of recreating scenes from the actual “Nosferatu” film with the new actors, as they repeat the timing and mannerisms of their 1922 counterparts with expert precision. As someone who has seen “Nosferatu” about a billion times, I certainly got a kick out of all the “remaking” going on. Though, to my disappointment, several of the more memorable moments of the film aren’t covered in “Shadow of the Vampire”. Perhaps the most obvious omission is the scene in which Orlok’s shadow can be seen scaling the staircase with no body in sight. The most famous scene in the movie, not to mention the scene this flick was named after, you’d presume it would be here.
Still, the “behind the scenes” view of all the other scenes, glimpses at what was supposedly going on around their shooting, are all excellent. The “death scene” at the film’s climax is definitely the highlight and the best sequence in the film, next only to Schreck’s drunken ramblings.
“Shadow of the Vampire” sports an inspired concept with a magnificent execution, I just wish it had been longer. Ninety minutes is fine if you’re making a popcorn summer action flick like “Alien vs. Predator” or whatever, but a movie like this deserved at least two hours, if only to cover as many of the original scenes in “Nosferatu” as possible.
Grade: B+ (as in, “But I’m afraid I have to say, this has the most boring opening credits sequence I’ve ever seen”.)
F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) is Germany’s finest motion picture director, hailed for the realism contained in his films. Murnau’s latest project, an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” entitled “Nosferatu”, will be his most epic masterpiece yet. Unbeknownst to his producers, cast and crew, Murnau has taken the liberty of casting a genuine vampire, one Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe), to play the part of the blood-thirsty Count Orlok. However, the centuries-old vampire proves incapable of combating his own urge to feed, continually dining on Murnau’s crew members. With his crew dropping one by one, Murnau’s sanity begins to unravel, leaving him to face up to the horror his obsession with realism has unleashed.
The real Max Schreck may not have been an actual vampire, but he was a very unusual man; a loner with a morbid personality who enjoyed playing frightening characters (“schreck” is, in fact, German for “fright”). An ugly guy, he required very little makeup or prosthetic enhancements to portray Orlok in “Nosferatu”. “Shadow of the Vampire” takes it one step further and posits the scenario of “what if Schreck was a vampire?” and offers a fictionalized account of the production of the film. A fairly brilliant false history, it takes one of the creepiest movies ever made and dials it up several notches.
Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck was an act of casting genius, no doubt about it. Dafoe is a very, er, bizarre-looking individual and just falls into the role so perfectly. The character of Schreck is both frightening and pathetic in this film, as he waxes nostalgic over the glory days when he drank from golden cups in great halls instead of cracked jugs in dank caves. There’s an especially inspired scene where, in a drunken stupor, he critiques Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” with some particularly thoughtful commentary.
John Malkovich plays the obsessive and quirky Murnau and does so with his usual method of character acting. He's fantastic, though I honestly haven’t seen very many of his other movies. All that really comes to mind is “Con Air”, though that’s a flick I should probably make an effort to forget. Other cast members, such as Eddie Izzard as Gustav von Wangenheim and Cary Elwes as Wagner, provide some excellent back-up performances, but don’t really stand out as anything spectacular. The movie is all about Schreck and Murnau, so they steal the bulk of the spotlight.
Director E. Elias Merhige does a fantastic job of recreating scenes from the actual “Nosferatu” film with the new actors, as they repeat the timing and mannerisms of their 1922 counterparts with expert precision. As someone who has seen “Nosferatu” about a billion times, I certainly got a kick out of all the “remaking” going on. Though, to my disappointment, several of the more memorable moments of the film aren’t covered in “Shadow of the Vampire”. Perhaps the most obvious omission is the scene in which Orlok’s shadow can be seen scaling the staircase with no body in sight. The most famous scene in the movie, not to mention the scene this flick was named after, you’d presume it would be here.
Still, the “behind the scenes” view of all the other scenes, glimpses at what was supposedly going on around their shooting, are all excellent. The “death scene” at the film’s climax is definitely the highlight and the best sequence in the film, next only to Schreck’s drunken ramblings.
“Shadow of the Vampire” sports an inspired concept with a magnificent execution, I just wish it had been longer. Ninety minutes is fine if you’re making a popcorn summer action flick like “Alien vs. Predator” or whatever, but a movie like this deserved at least two hours, if only to cover as many of the original scenes in “Nosferatu” as possible.
Grade: B+ (as in, “But I’m afraid I have to say, this has the most boring opening credits sequence I’ve ever seen”.)
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