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- Shadow of the Vampire - US DVD - 

The year 2000 marked a period of great change for the humble horror film.
The dubious "Teen" sub-genre that had spawned "Scream" and "I know what you
did last summer", had seemingly run it's course. 
It is at times such as this that critics are at their most savage. Those 
wishing to push the genre forward through such a period of transition are 
often beguiled for their efforts. With hindsight it appears far easier to 
criticize a film without originality than one with. 
However, those directors who attempt to break new ground and fail are almost
always universally panned.
Such a fate befell E Elias Merhige - director of the interesting "Shadow of
the Vampire". Merhige's vision of recreating F.W Murnau's classic "Nosferatu"
was ambitious indeed. To some it failed spectacularly. For others it was a 
new genre-defining piece. 
A movie that transcended the 'nuts-and-bolts' of traditional horror movies 
and moved on to a new, more personable plain. 
"Shadow of the Vampire" is essentially a film about a film. 
Far from simply portraying Murnau's final movie, Merhige actually re-tells
the story as if the viewer were present at the time of filming. 
John Malkovich stars as Murnau - desperate director of the 1922 vampire classic
"Nosferatu". He is close to breakdown as his film runs over schedule and over
budget. As per usual for Malkovich, his performance as dithering Murnau is 
Just about faultless. 
Excellent also is Willem Defoe as the aforementioned "vampire" - Max Shreck.
This creepy individual is "hired" by Murnau to play the villain of the piece
in return for neck of the leading lady.
Murnau is portrayed as a director in a desperate state. In pursuit of a more
realistic atmosphere for his vampire movie, he moves his cast and crew to the
nether regions of Eastern Europe and the residence of Max Shreck. The director
seems oblivious to his leading man's strange appearance. Neither is he concerned
when a number of his cast begin to disappear in suspicious circumstances. 
One such cast member who becomes weary of the mysterious Shreck is "Gustav"
 - played excellently by Eddie Izzard. The British comedian creates much of
the black humour that makes "Shadow" such a memorable piece.
As with any legendary horror movie, there has to be a leading lady. This role
is taken by Catherine McCormack who moulds the selfish and rather sinister
female from the original film perfectly. Her on-screen tantrums and mood-swings
heighten the tension amongst the cast enthused by Shreck. McCormack provides
a fair performance. Unfortunately, her intolerable character is over-exposed
throughout the movie because there is nobody (apart from Murnau on occasion)
who can counter her outbursts, she soon becomes extremely tiresome upon the
ear.
Malkovich develops the character of director Murnau seamlessly. From slight
agitation at the beginning, his character experiences a whole range of different
emotions. All are equally extreme and unstable. Rage soon turns to euphoria
- excitement to total dejection. Much of these wildly contrasting emotions 
can be put down to the behaviour of Shreck whose unpredictability is infuriating
to his director. Sometimes he would take an age to prepare himself for filming.
Other times he would refuse to be filmed at all - preferring instead to dwell
inside his foreboding residence.
Defoe and Malkovich play off each other brilliantly throughout. Viewers are
never quite sure who is the more threatening - Shreck or Murnau. Although the
former looks horrifying in his appearance and sinister in his behaviourisms,
the latter is extremely cunning and manipulative. He draws the negative energy
contained within Shreck and uses it to his own advantage. 
All that concerns the director is the way his leading man looks on film.
Produced by Nicolas Cage, there seems no small amount of the bravado herein
that is the hallmark of his acting style. 
Merhige is clinical in his directing style. Rarely is the camera in one place
- instead panning from side to side in order to capture the true hideousness 
of Shreck in all his glory. 
The contrast between real-time colour and the black-and-white footage that
is played out during supposed filming is a very nice touch. Neither format
is too harsh upon the eye and has the blended quality that made Schindlers
List such an asthetic masterpiece.
As mentioned earlier, it is always the more ambitious that leave themselves
most susceptible to criticism. Much of that said criticism was misguided at
the time of this movies' original release. Defoe received an Oscar for his
performance, as did the make-up team who must have worked tirelessly to 
re-create the sinister vampire of the 1922 original. 
Shadow of the Vampire has its strength in its cast. 
There are no shots of lingering suffering nor a penchant towards explicit
violence. 
What there is however, is a finely crafted piece of black comedy with a sinister
twist.
The UK DVD release of this movie contained a very nice 16x9 Widescreen transfer. 
The original print is spotless. 
Sound is rather dull and slightly disappointing at just Dolby Digital 2.0
Extra features were surprisingly good with a behind the scenes featurette,
makeup featurette, production notes/photographs, video interview, cast and 
crew biography and a feature-length commentary from director E. Elias Merhige.

Reviewed By Dr Freudstein

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