# Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

### reviewed by
Chad Polenz@aol.com

Author: ChadPolenz@aol.com Subject: Review: Shadow of the Vampire (2000) Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews Organization: None X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Summary: r.a.m.r. #28092 Keywords: author=polenz

    Shadow Of The Vampire
    a film review by Chad Polenz

    WHAT IT'S ABOUT:

A quasi docudrama/quasi horror movie about the making of a classic vampire movie, "Nosferatu" in Germany in the 1920s. John Malkovich plays an obsessive director who goes for as much detail as you could possibly get out of dreary, grainy black and white film and no sound. Willem Dafoe plays Max Schreck, an "actor" playing the role of the Dracula character who isn't wearing making and isn't method acting - he really is a vampire! The story shows how Schreck is a lonely old man who just happens to fit the mold of the vampire cliche we know today. He scares the bejesus out of the cast and has a taste for human blood while Malkovich films him for authenticity purposes. You're supposed to wonder who's the bigger nut - the vampire pretending to be an actor playing the role of a vampire or the director for exploiting him. This is obviously meant to be a thinking man's horror film since the scariness is derived from these strange men's behavior but it never really comes across that way.

    WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT:

The art direction and production design give a totally realistic, authentic look of the heydays of B&W silent movies and the equipment and sets the film crews had to work with at the time. When the scenes of the movie within the movie are shot the frame closes to a 3:2 ratio with a very grainy, dreary picture - the exact opposite of digital remastering. It's a poetic homage to the past and a gutsy technique to use in this day and age. Malkovich and Dafoe also give excellent performances but as good as they are, they can't carry the movie entirely by themselves.

    WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD ABOUT IT:

    In a word: boring!

I'm a big appreciator of ambiguity and the concept that true terror is based on what our five senses can't pick up on. "Shadow Of The Vampire" is meant to appeal to our sixth sense so that we're frightened by the fact a REAL vampire is playing the role of one in a movie and does things a real vampire would do. Yes, Dafoe is excellent in his role but he's not scary or disturbing, he's just weird. Maybe I'm just cynical because I'm used to more mainstream fare, but this movie only has a few good moments and isn't great throughout. There's not enough characterization of the supporting cast, there's a lot of details missing from the main plot, the suspenseful sequences are a little trite and the ending is forgettable.

    OVERALL CRITIQUE:

The running time is only 85 minutes or so - that tells you a lot right there. For a docudrama to work you need to spend a lot more time with the characters - get to know them personally and intimately. We never do that with this troupe. Everyone's just kind of a tool to make the plot payoff. Throughout "Shadow Of The Vampire" there's many many hints of personal drama and inner demons to the characters but the screenplay can't balance the story with characterization. One minute we're on the set of the movie, the next it's some personal subplot that never comes to fruitation and doesn't have a lot of significance overall.

This is one of those movies where you know exactly what the filmmakers were trying to do and you still don't enjoy it. A mediocre product but a good effort nevertheless.

RATING: ** (out of **** = fair/below average)

Chad'z Movie Page You can also read this review at: http://www.epinions.com/content_9026834052 And other reviews on the same topic at: http://www.epinions.com/mvie Check out my profile page at: http://www.epinions.com/user-chad9976

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews