#45 - Shadow of the Vampire

Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Moderately Trashy
Directed by: E. Elias Merhige. Written by: Steven Katz.

Plot: About the filming of the original Nosferatu. Turns out that Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe) is a vampire in real life. This raises some speculations as to Willem Dafoe…

Review: The movie feels sort of like the Ed Wood take on Nosferatu, but more made-up. If you know what I mean.

I guess it’s probably not a horror movie either, when you get technical, but it’s got a vampire in it so… Of course, it’s more goofy than scary, but it doesn’t deny it’s horror roots at any point and is occasionally weird enough to be creepy. Willem Dafoe is appropriately bizarre… I love him though. He should be in every movie.

And then there’s John Malkovich, for added humour value. I can’t remember if he’s trying to do a German accent in this movie or not, but it doesn’t matter. The guy can’t even do a convincing American accent. Honest to God, I would love to know what happened to that man. He’s kind of starting to grow on me though. I don’t know why, there’s just something weirdly… likeable about him. I guess ever since I saw Being John Malkovich I’ve started to really like him. Good movie that…

But yeah, this movie is entertainment I would say - it doesn’t try to be more than that (at least as far as I was concerned. I mean, there could have been some big message in there but I wasn’t paying attention), and it made me laugh.

And it’s a very good idea for a movie too. I can’t get over that. God knows it’s probably ripped off of something (what isn’t?) but I don’t know what that it. So this is very clever. It’s the ultimate post-vampire movie and, naturally, makes horror movie fans feel smug.

Although I’m not one hundred percent sure whether I saw this before the original Nosferatu or not… certainly after the Herzog version, but… I think I must have seen it later. I must have. Yeah. I don’t think I would have really gotten it if I hadn’t.

That’s one thing, though. It’s such a referential movie that you kind of have to see the source material to get the full benefit of this movie. Unlike Ed Wood… I guess. I’m not sure which is better in that situation. I saw Ed Wood before seeing Bride of the Monster or Plan 9, and I think it made me enjoy those movies more than I would have, but then I might have found Ed Wood more entertaining had I seen more of his films beforehand… undecided on that topic. Will have to run some experiments…

But yeah, this movie makes me feel happy.

Favourite Part: I dunno, it all makes me smile.

Other versions: None per se.

Sequels: None.

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