Review of Shadow of the Vampire
Year: 2000 Reviewer: Chris Docker
The first vampire movie ever, Nosferatu, is credited as being something of a silent era masterpiece. 'Shadow of the Vampire' follows the making of the original film and with a few twists. John Malkovitch plays the eccentric genius film director, Murnau, with marvellous lines about the importance of cinema and the creation of memories. Willem Defoe plays the vampire. In the obsessive search for reality, the film version of Murnau has cast a real vampire in the part and things go wrong as the Count snacks on the cast. As only the director know the vampire is a vampire, there is some excellent wit as the rest of the cast are astounded at the superb 'method acting.' All the time the believability of the part is increasing. Art it maybe, though scary it ain't. As a homage to the vampire genre, this lack of terror is a shortcoming, giving it at times a slightly 'art for art's sake' pretentiousness, but the overall effect is impressive. At the end we can almost taste the foul stench of death that the vampire lives on. If Nosferatu was one of the most convincing portrayals of a vampire ever made, Defoe gives a stunning re-creation, and in doing so creates another masterful characterization. Overall the film is a welcome, thoughtful, and seriously thought-provoking enlivenment of the vampire tradition and a much needed change from schlock-horror vampire movies on the one hand or soft-porn comedy vampire movies on the other.
Rating: 8/10
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