Review of Shadow of the Vampire (2000) by Sam E — 03 Aug 2008

One of those movies I don't think has aged very well. In fact, I don't remember thinking it was that good when it first came out back in 2000, but this time it's sleep-inducing. Malkovich stars as famed german director of the silent age, F.

Murnau, who's out to shoot his greatest work, "Nosferatu". He plays this role with much pretense and very little subtlety. William Dafoe does an excellent job as Max Schreck, the actor portraying Nosferatu who surprise! turns out to be a real vampire.

The rest of the film deals with Schreck killing crew members and Murnau getting mad at him, shooting a scene, killing more crew members, etc. What sounded like a film of potential (if you've ever seen Nosferatu, you know how creepy the real Schreck's performance was- he might've been a vampire at one point), turns out to be a little pretentious, a little long, and a major motion picture that looks like it was shot on zero budget: it sometimes has the air of a late-night showtime softcore porn movie.