Review of Shadow of the Vampire (2000) by Angelina C — 11 Mar 2010

I would say that this is mostly a movie about movies. The vampire stuff is not as good as it is in other movies, but this is supposed to be a very old vampire with no vitality left to hunt people. Rather it features its own account of all the movie plagues to come for the very young art form of film.

The conflicts between director, producer, and writer, the ridiculous demands of the lead actor, the director who almost tortures his cast and crew to get what he wants, etc. There were definitely some cryptic moments for Dafoe's Shreck to portray a man tortured by time, and the music complements them beautifully.

Malkovich gives some really inspiring words about the nature of the motion picture, what it is and what it can do. I imagine most people thinking of it as contrived, but they probably don't even have the stomach for silent b&w pictures.

My favorite aspect of this film is how it implies more than what it shows. Dafoe does it very well telling stories about how great being a vampire used to be. The movie's setting is not explored very much with just glimpses of old German society and landscapes.

The music definitely raises feelings of the old days, especially over the opening credits with the art nouveau graphics. At the very least it is worth seeing Malkovich and Dafoe playing off each other so well.