Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

Director:  E. Elias Merhige
Cast:  John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier, Cary Elwes, Catherine McCormack, Eddie Izzard

You're probably wondering why I'm going against everything I've sworn off and doing a review of a modern movie.  The only reason I'm doing it is because it's based on a classic horror film.

THE PLOT:  The film is pretty much a fictionalized account of the making of Nosferatu (A review is finally coming right after this one).  The year is 1921 and Frederich Wilhelm "F.W." Murnau (John Malkovich) has all of his actors lined up for his vampire film based on Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula.  There's only one problem:  he's missing the vampire.  But apparently he's not worried because the scenes with the vampire don't come in till about 30 minutes into the film.        

One night at an old Slovak castle, the crew is filming the scene where Thomas Hutter (more on why the names were changed in the Nosferatu review), played by Gustav von Wangenheim (Eddie Izzard) meets Count Orlok for the first time, and while I'm not sure that this is planned on Murnau's part, but Count Orlok (Willem Dafoe) walks out of the shadows.  Murnau then announces that Max Schreck will be playing the part of Count Orlok.

The crew believe, foolishly, that Schreck's odd activities are just his way of staying in character.  Oh, he was staying in character, all right; the crew learns that he is an actual vampire and that Murnau has made a deal with him that he will get the lead actress, Greta Schroeder (Catherine McCormack) in exchange for starring in his film.

Every good director has to have a wimp on his crew, so Murnau's cameraman takes one for the team and passes out due to his shock upon seeing Schreck for the first time.  He is replaced by Fritz Arno Wagner (Cary Elwes, whom you might recognize from the extremely strange 1992 version of Dracula).

So at the end, Greta dies because Schreck has bitten her.  The End.

THE REVIEW:  While fictionalized, the film still does give some accuracies, such as the name changes.  I find it interesting that Knock was not included, but that may be because that unlike Dwight Frye's Renfield in the '31 Dracula, Knock was not written for comic relief, but for all to see how much influence Orlok can have on the unsuspecting.

I've always been a fan of John Malkovich ever since I saw Of Mice and Men.  He's kind of like Dwight Frye in that he can do accents remarkably well (watch The Shadow to see how terrific Dwight is at accents).

Willem Dafoe did not look like Willem Dafoe, just like Max Schreck did not look like Max Schreck once the makeup was put on.  He was almost as scary as Max Schreck himself.

The weirdest thing about this film is that Greta has some sort of orgasm.  And of course, I saw this movie on IFC, and they just HAD to show her breasts.  Not quite sure what it was, thinking it was just the vampire's influence.  Ah well.  Sadly, however, that has to dock this movie's score because that was just plain weird to watch.  4 out of 5 stars.

Trailer: