An imaginatively twisted lesson in film history and a glorious gothic comedy-drama.
Comment
09/25/07
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
82 %
Reviews Counted: 131 Fresh: 107 Rotten:24 Average Rating: 7/10
Consensus:
Shadow of the Vampire is frightening, compelling, and funny, and features an excellent performance by Willem Dafoe.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Synopsis: E. Elias Mehrige's SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE explores the fictional premise that the star of director F.W. Murnau's 1922 German expressionist horror film, NOSFERATU, was an actual vampire. When the dictatorial Murnau (John Malkovich) sets about filming his monster masterpiece, he makes a... [More]
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Starring: John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier, Cary Elwes, Catherine McCormack
Reviews
Top Critic
Intriguing, eccentric, sporadically entertaining tosh (but tosh all the same).
06/24/06
Top Critic
A brilliant idea and two enjoyably over-the-top central performances, but an ultimately disappointing one-joke movie.
10/30/02
Top Critic
Shadow of the Vampire might only play a few notes, but they're solid notes, expertly played.
04/09/01
This in-reference fest for frightfilm fans has enough chuckles and shudders even for those who’ve never heard of Nosferatu.
02/07/01
Top Critic
... [I]f you like your horror thoughtful and provoking, this is your movie.
06/25/08
The screenplay, by Steven Katz, suffers from arch, almost unspeakably theatrical dialogue, and, as Murnau, John Malkovich recites his lines as if monomania were synonymous with monotonic: He drains the drama of blood.
09/25/07
Wholly absorbing and inspired in parts, this carefully crafted curio dares to suggest that Murnau made a Faustian pact with an actual vampire to play the title role in exchange for the neck of the film's leading lady at production's end.
09/25/07
Top Critic
At best, this is a dawdling, toothless riff on a vastly superior film. At worst, it's character assassination.
09/23/07
Through layers of makeup depicting the rat-faced, undead Schreck, a vampire who turns not into a bat but, worse, a demanding prima donna, Dafoe doesn't go over the top, though he does plant his flag at the summit.
04/05/06
In this cookie cutter movie world, it's nice to see the occasional move that doesn't quite fit into a specific genre or can't easily be classified.
09/30/05
What might have occurred during the filming of Nosferatu leaves one amused but confused about how much of Shadow is a spoof and how much is based in truth.
06/25/04
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