Shadow of the Vampire, 2000.
Directed by E. Elias Merhige.
Starring John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Cary Elwes, John Aden Gillet, Eddie Izzard, Udo Kier and Catherine McCormack.
SYNOPSIS:
Acclaimed director FW Murnau sets out to direct an unauthorised adaptation of Dracula entitled Nosferatu, casting Max Schreck in the lead role. However, as filming begins, it soon becomes clear that the mysterious Schreck might be something far more sinister than a mere actor.
We kicked off this year’s October Horrors with a look at FW Murnau’s silent horror Nosferatu, a film which has since become among the most iconic in cinema history and hugely influential to numerous filmmakers throughout the decades. One such filmmaker was E. Elias Merhige, whose surreal experimental film Begotten (which we also looked at earlier this month) drew heavy inspiration from Murnau’s film as well as others of the German Expressionist silent era. So, appropriately enough, today’s entry is Merhige’s take on Nosferatu itself, Shadow of the Vampire, a meta-fictional horror drama in which the making of Murnau’s classic takes on a bizarre, horrific twist.
The aspect of Shadow of the Vampire that I loved was its premise. While there have been horror films set around the making of horror films, they have mainly focused on fictional creations. Think of the Stab films, the funny in-joke ‘franchise within a franchise’ of the Scream franchise (take a drink every time I said franchise). Shadow, on the other hand, offers us a depiction of the making of a real horror film, with a cast of characters who were all real people, giving the film an almost docudrama approach, albeit with the added horror twist in that actor Max Schreck, who took on the infamous role of Count Orlok, is portrayed as an actual vampire. I’d love to see a horror docudrama approach done with other famous horror films. I can imagine a fictionalised version of the making of The Exorcist featuring William Friedkin directing the Devil himself, with the Devil struggling against the overpowering insanity of Friedkin.
While director Merhige may have made his name with the indecipherable Begotten, Shadow of the Vampire offers us a more conventionally directed film. Although this is a more “normal” film, Shadow still allows Merhige to dip back into his German expressionist-influenced style with the re-enactment of scenes from Nosferatu. Perfectly mimicking the look and feel of Murnau’s film, complete with the grainy black and white hand-cranked static camera and the actors clad in white make-up that lends them a ghostly quality. This throwback to the silent era is aided by the small inserts from the real Nosferatu scattered throughout the film, with the edits managing to be so seamless that they nearly blend in with the re-enactments.
While it may be listed as a horror film, running throughout Shadow of the Vampire is an undercurrent of dark humour, particularly in its depiction of actor Max Schreck. While he is obviously an undead creature of the night, Schreck is portrayed as an almost comical figure as his grotesque appearance and mysterious, weird manners unnerve Munau’s crew, who view him with suspicion and fear. Yet, they also view him with an element of mockery, dismissing his increasingly creepy antics as those of an overly pretentious method actor. Essentially, they view him as a Jared Leto type.
The aspect of the film I found funniest was the depiction of the working relationship between Murnau and Schreck, with it shown as a ferocious clash of gigantic egos between an obsessive director and his demanding actor. I particularly loved Murnau berating Schreck for sucking the blood of his camera operator, Murnau, caring not for his colleague but more about how it will affect his film, asking, “Why him? Why not the script girl?”. The cherry on top is the devilish reply from Schreck, who says, “….I’ll eat her later”. If anything, the tumultuous relationship between Schreck and Murnau reminded me of the notoriously volatile partnership between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the director and star of the 1979 remake of Nosferatu. I don’t know if this was a deliberate callback to them, but it’s a funny coincidence if it wasn’t.
As the man behind the camera, FW Murnau, John Malkovich gives an energetic and volcanic performance, portraying the acclaimed director as a talented but obsessive artist, barking demands at his cast and crew with the tyrannical vigour of a dictator. It’s a fun performance that, while not reflective of the real Murnau (who was said to be much kinder), does capture the intensity and commitment befitting of such a legendary filmmaker.
The stand out of the film is Willem Dafoe in an Oscar-nominated performance as Max Schreck, the mysterious actor cast as the vampire Count Orlok. Dafoe, dressed in the familiar guise of Orlok, gives a near-perfect recreation of Schreck’s performance from Nosferatu, mimicking the odd posture, unusual gait and piercing rat-like facial expressions. While recreating Schreck’s performance, Dafoe also imbues the character with his own touches. Portraying Schreck with a wicked sense of mischief that renders this once sinister figure from silent cinema as surprisingly funny, with his wide-eyed, rat-toothed grin as he over-powers Murnau being as hilarious as it is utterly terrifying. Although a nice quiet moment is a small speech in which, while discussing the Dracula novel, Schreck talks about how it made him “sad” and how he views the Count as “lonely”, Dafoe’s quiet and sombre delivery subtly revealing Schreck’s own loneliness as an undead creature of the night.
If there are any issues with the film, it’s the pacing. Things start off nicely as we are introduced to the various characters behind the production. However, once Schreck enters the film, everything picks up the pace as we rush to re-create sequences from Nosferatu, with it sometimes feeling like chunks of the story are missing to keep the film from running over 90-minutes.
What we get is well-acted, directed and entertaining, but I wished there was more to flesh things out further – or at least more scenes of Willem Dafoe mugging up a storm and damn near turning Count Orlok into Count Olaf. However, the biggest disappointment (and I admit I’m merely being silly here) is that, although he produced the film, Nicolas Cage does not appear once. And yes, this is a blatant tease for a film we’ll be looking at very soon.
Led by strong performances from John Malkovich and a hugely fun Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire is a highly entertaining take on the cinematic “behind the scenes” biopic and a loving tribute and worthy addition to the legacy of the original iconic Nosferatu.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Graeme Robertson
