Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10931 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-06-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

Amazon.com
Clever, engaging, and boosted by the sublime casting of Willem Dafoe as Nosferatu actor Max Schreck, Shadow of the Vampire is a film full of good ideas that are only partially developed. Its premise is ripe with possibilities, but the movie's too slight to register much impact, so you're left to relish its delightful performances and director E. Elias Merhige's affectionately tongue-in-cheek homage to a landmark of German silent cinema. John Malkovich is aptly loony as the eccentric director F.W. Murnau, whose passion in filming the 1922 classic Nosferatu leads to the extreme casting of Schreck as the vampire, a vision of evil who, in this movie's delightfully twisted imagination, actually is a vampire, sucking the blood of cast and crewmembers who've dismissed Schreck as an overzealous method actor.

As these on-set maladies and "accidents" continue, Schreck wields greater control over Murnau, who descends into a kind of obsessive art-for-art's-sake madness until diva costar Greta Schroeder (Catherine McCormack, doing wonderful work) is served up as the actor's ultimate motivation. Merhige and his actors (including Cary Elwes, as intrepid cameraman Fritz Wagner) have great fun with this ghastly escapade, and the humor is kept delicately subtle to balance the movie's artistic aspirations. To that end, Dafoe is just right, his bald pate and gaunt features a perfect match for the mysterious Schreck, his grimace and talon-like fingers suggesting a human vulture on the prowl. Likewise, the re-creation of Nosferatu's expressionist style is both fanciful and brilliantly authentic. Too bad, then, that this movie suffers a mild case of vampiric anemia; if it shared the depth and richness of, say, Ed Wood, this might have been a cult classic for the ages. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Or, how to blow a really good idea. The director E. Elias Merhige, noting the deathless appeal of F. W. Murnau's "Nosferatu," has decided to re-create the making of the film. We are transported to nineteen-twenties Berlin for scenes of dreary decadence and from there to a rural movie set, where the obsessive Murnau (John Malkovich) struggles to control the eccentric conduct of Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe), his leading man. "Nosferatu" was one of the earliest "Dracula" adaptations, and it remains the best, but you would never know that from the amateurish mania that prevails here. Merhige buys happily into the rumor that Schreck was a real vampire-bad news for Catherine McCormack, who plays the love interest, and finds that Schreck is only interested in her neck. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Nosferatu for real
Willem Dafoe stars as the actor Max Shrek, playing Nosferatu; except he's not an actor he really is a vampire. That is the premise of this film. Its based on the 1921 classic silent movie and works on neally every level. As simple entertainment its thrilling and occasionally quite funny. On a deeper level, like most horror films it plays on our darkest fears and our primal instincts.

The acting from Dafoe and Malkovich is magical, and the supporting cast including Eddie Izzard, are very good.

Why doesn't it merit 5 stars. Well if you remove the long opening credit sequence and the end credits, the film actually comes in at under 80 minutes. It could have been fleshed out a little more (excuse the pun).

Still its a fine film that pays tribute to the original classic, and is classic all of its own.

One of my favorite movies--I had to own it!
This movie is thrilling in every way--from the story line, the great actors/actresses, cinematography, etc. Every time I watch it, I seem to catch one little thing I missed before. One recommendation: If possible, you MUST watch "Nosferatu" before you see "Shadow of the Vampire."

A strange Vampire film with both teeth and brains.
Produced by Nicolas Cage, Shadow of the Vampire is a cleverly fictionalized account of the production of the F.W. Murnau classic vampire film Nosferatu (1922) (not to be confused with Werner Herzog's excellent 1979 remake Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht starring Klaus Kinski). During the filming of the 1922 original, the crew became suspicious their lead actor (Max Schreck) was more than what he seemed, which is the basis of Shadow of the Vampire. Set in 1922, and while filming in an old castle in Czechoslovakia, German director F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich) becomes impressed with professional method actor Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe), who claims to be a centuries-old vampire. To prove himself, Schreck even catches a bat with his hand, bites it, and then sucks the blood from its body, leaving him in ecstasy. Without spoiling the plot, it becomes evident that realism is important to Murnau in making his film, and in his madness he even promises Schreck the main actress/love interest Greta Schröder (Catherine McCormack) as a prize once the movie is complete. This film is frightening, funny, and twisted. In my opinion, there are at least four reasons to see this film:

1. John Malkovich is perfect in the role of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, the eccentric director of Nosferatu.

2. Willem Dafoe is also perfect in the disquieting role of Max Schreck, who plays the vampire Count Orlok/Count Dracula Schreck. (Dafoe was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.)

3. This film will appeal to fans of either Nosferatu or Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht, in that it imagines the movie's lead character was actually a vampire, putting the cast and crew's lives in jeopardy. It will change the way you think of the two earlier films.

4. This film defies genres, escaping the Hollywood cookie-cutter formula in making vampire movies. Think of Dario Argento goofing on F.W. Murnau.

G. Merritt