Rating: 
Summary: Stay out of the light
Review: Some of the best acting i have seen in a film in a long time, this should definitly prove that Willem Dafoe is one of the greatest actors of our time. This movie mixes real life situations, such as the filming of the real film Nosferatu, with fiction (or so some think). John Malkovich's character is definitly insane and will not stop at making the most realistic vampire movie ever made. This film is very entertaining from the start, and can make you laugh and give you the creeps at the same time. Wonderful make up jobs, great cinematography. Really a good film.
Rating: 
Summary: Clever script with superb acting
Review: Such a clever and unexpected twist to the Vampire film genre. Gone are the "Dusk Till Dawn" hyper-action and Wes Craven "Dracula 2000" cliches. Instead, screenwriter Steven Katz (any relation to the comic?) and E. Elias Merhige have created a work of art, though short of a 5-star masterpeice, that is true to the German expressionism of the original "Nosferatu".The feel of the film is like that of Film Noir which emanated from German Expressionism (See Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari), so expect a dark and moody montage. But the true highlight is that of the dynamics between William Dafoe as the vampire (yes, a real vampire) and John Malkovich as Murnau the pre-WWII Berlin film auteur. The two actors alone make the film a worthwhile watch, yet they are supplemented by excellent performances from Catherine McCormack (Braveheart), Cary Elwes (Princess Bride) and Eddy Izzard (transvestite English comic, I kid you not). Yet I wouldn't stop there in the film's praises. The story has humor, albeit dark comedy, that somehow works with a gothic setting. Not Sam Raimi/Army Of Darkness funny, but an intellectual humor more reminscent of Tim Burton's sly fun in "Ed Wood". There are a few vacuums you will sense in the film as a whole, but the pros greatly outweigh the cons in this case. I haven't seen a film this unique and clever since, well, oddly enough "Being John Malkovich". So if you're a Malkovich junkie like I realize I have become from this film onward, "Shadow Of A Vampire" is a must see.
Rating:
Summary: Shadow Shifts Time
Review: Unable to film "Dracula" Frederick Maurnau twists Stoker's tale and films "Nosferatu" the epic 1922 silent horror. Shadow of the Vampire" is his "story" revamped for today's audience. Personally, I found the movie unique and strange, and very artsy. The change of cinematography from those of the past (1922) blur into the techniques of today. Film students should take a bite out of this one, as well as anyone who's looking for a movie which doesn't look like all other movies. This flic is an acquired taste! However, it should be sold as a boxed set with "Nosferatu."
Rating: 
Summary: It was...okay...
Review: Now, I am a very big fan of the film "Nosferatu" (1922), and that is the reason I wanted to see this. I was VERY dissapointed. The acting was either over-exagerated (Malkovitch), whiny (The chick that played Greta Schroeder, I forget her name), annoying and totaly unlike the actors in the real film "Nosferatu" (Defoe), or just plain stiff and in-the-background. Now, it was interesting enough seeing the scenes from the movie with new actors and in colour, but they were still unfaithful, rigid, and just pathetic. Did ANY member of the cast or crew watch "Nosferatu" (1922) besides the writer?!?!? And speaking of the writing, it's pretty danged tin-pan-alley! Also, Defoe does NOT act like Max Schreck AT ALL. He's WAY too sudden and murderous in his movements. Schreck was slow, stiff, spidery, and creepy. Defoe was just like "SNARL!!!" ! Now, the idea of making a movie about the making of Nosferatu except that Schreck is a vampire IS A PRETTY COOL IDEA. Really. But it is just executed SO POORLY in this movie. Well, I'll give this movie two stars simply because it really wasn't all that terrible, but it just has one too many a gaping hole in it. Also, it's about a relativley obscure movie, so, I congratulate it for that.~John Ballantyne
14 year old movie buff
Rating:
Summary: The Truth about "Vampire" Max Schreck
Review: No thanks to "Shadow of the Vampire", it has now entered urban legend that Max Schreck, the actor who played the title character of "Nosferatu", was in fact a real vampire, or at least an extremely deranged individual. A nominal amount of research brings up a couple of embarassing questions: 1. If Max caused THAT much trouble on the set of "Nosferatu", then why did director F. W. Murnau choose to use Max AGAIN in the 1924 film "The Grand Duke's Finances"? 2. If they did in fact have to trap Max into his death at the end of "Nosferatu", how was Max resurrected from the dead to play the role of a blind man one year later in the film "Die Strasse" (1923)? (By the way, Max worked in three films in between "Nosferatu" (1922) and "Die Strasse" (1923), one of which was a rendering of "The Merchant of Venice". Judging from that busy schedule, he must not have been dead very long.) The truth of the matter was that Max Schreck was a character actor from German theatre whom F. W. Murnau knew when both were actors under the legendary theatre director Max Reinhardt. After his work in "Nosferatu", Max continued to split his work in film and theatre until he died of a heart attack in 1936 at the age of 57. Apparently they were only able to resurrect him once, as he has not left his grave (in a cemetary near Berlin) since. (Both "Die Strasse" and "The Grand Duke's Finances" still survive, by the way; the former is available on video if you'd like to investigate further.)
Rating:
Summary: Camp and Scary
Review: The casting of Malkovich as the crazed director and Dafoe as the Vampire are what makes this movie special. Malkovich's
character will go to any length to make his movie, while the vampire, brilliantly protrayed by Dafoe, does what he's done for centuries
in a somewhat amusing way. One begins to wonder who the real monster is, and the vampire (Dafoe) steals "this" movie
with an Oscar calibur performance.
Rating:
Summary: Please sir, I want some more
Review: This is a wonderful film for "Nosferatu" fans; especially those who don't mind liberties being taken with historical fact. In reality Murnau wasn't as much a control freak as he appears to be in the film, Max Schreck was a stage actor who distinguished himself in several film and stage productions (including another film directed by Murnau), and no one was killed during the making of "Nosferatu". That having been said, this film is a great glimpse of what might have been. What if Max Schreck had really been a vampire? Well, then Murnau would have had to be a pretty ruthless, ideological director in order to keep Max in check-- and that's the way John Malkovich portrays him. Everything falls into place; although it's not the way things happened in real life, it all makes sense. There are some poignant and humorous sequences in the film; Dafoe plays Max as a crotchety-- and sometimes charming-- old man, and his first introduction to the cinema (he cranks up a projector and watches footage of a sunrise) is both humorous and sad. By the end of the film we are rooting for Max as we realize that Murnau has been taken over by the ruthless, mechanical spirit of his movie camera. It spells death for Max and madness for Murnau-- but luckily things didn't turn out that way. It was just a possibility... Technically, this is a fine video transfer, and Merhige's commentary is very good-- I liked the fact that Merhige had to break off every so often because he got involved in watching the action. My only complaint is that the film seemed too short; a lot of the middle of the film seems to have been cut out. Maybe a Director's Cut will come out someday.
Rating:
Summary: A fun, dark revisioning of Nosferatu
Review: This was one fun movie. The story is loosely based on the making on the silent classic NOSFERATU in 1922. It was directed by the German director, F.W. Murnau, and is considered one of the best (if not the best) vampire movies ever made. I still have memories as a kid watching it on TV. The scene where the vampire's shadow ascends the staircase gave me nightmares for weeks. It was Murnau's radical idea (for that time) to film the novel DRACULA on location in an abandoned old castle in Czechoslovakia. Unfortunately, the estate of Bram Stoker wouldn't give Murnau the rights to film the novel. So he changed the plot very slightly and the name of his vampire from Count Dracula to Count Orlok. The Count was played by an actor named Max Schreck, whose name is German for "Maximum Terror. The name fit him well. He is most unlike the vampires that one is used to in a vampire movie. He didn't have a flowing cape, was very ugly, had the ears of a rat, a bald head, long talons for fingernails, extremely dense and bushy eyebrows, and two pointed teeth in the front instead of fangs. He repulsed women instead of seducing them like the charming vampires later on like Bela Lugosi or Frank Langella. The film was supposed to make Schreck an international star,but lawsuits from the Stoker estate stopped the film from wide distribution and he only did a few more films after. Little is known about him, and that's where the fun begins with SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE. It's about the making of the silent film NOSFERATU, but it takes a lot of liberties with it. I want to make this clear - this is NOT a realistic account of how NOSFERATU was made. It is the premise of this new film that the director F.W. Murnau (played wonderfully by John Malkovich) would seemingly do anything to get his film made. For the vampire lead, he hires someone (Willem Dafoe) who thinks he is a real vampire - or is he? Murnau tells his cast that his choice for the role of Count Orlok is a theater actor named Max Schreck who likes to stay in character all the time, even when the camera's not running. He tells the cast just to play along with the demands of this strange actor. And the demands do get strange! It was amazing how much Willem Dafoe's character resembled the original, and how well they recreated the scenes of the silent classic. There's a couple instances where they even inserted footage from the original, but unless you know NOSFERATU real well, you may not be able to tell. I don't want to tell you anymore of the plot. Just go rent (or but) it and have a good time. There's parts that are funny, parts that are creepy, and even a part where Schreck talks about being a vampire with two of the crew that's a bit melancholic. It's not a real deep movie, but it will make for interesting conversation afterwards. The acting (with an Academy Award nomination for Willem Dafoe), art direction, cinematography, and soundtrack are terrific. If you haven't seen NOSFERATU, you still should enjoy this movie. But if you have seen NOSFERATU before, you won't see it the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: Green Goblin in the Making!
Review: If you're curious how Willem Dafoe got the part of the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, look no further than this little gem. Dafoe gives a standout, genuinely creepy performance as Max Schreck, a vampire playing the part of an actor playing the part of a vampire. Sound strange? Check out this tribute to the 1922 German silent film classic Nosferatu and all will be answered!
Rating:
Summary: A hauntingly funny gem
Review: Say and call Shadow of the Vampire what you will, but I for one love this movie for everything it is and isn't. At first I wasn't sure what to make of the film, but after repeated viewings Shadow of the Vampire has become quite possibly my all time favorite film. Those expecting a normal vampire film will get a surprise, this is a different kind of vampire movie. A tribute of sorts to the original crew of the legendary German film Nosferatu, John Malkovich stars as director F.W. Murnau, and Willem Dafoe is "character actor" Max Shreck. As the film unfolds we learn Shreck is an actual vampire, and his personality comes out the more he is around the film crew. I will say that Dafoe gives a knockout performance, and he earned his Best Supporting Actor nomination, his makeup (which was also nominated for an Academy Award) was excellent as well. But what made Dafoe's performace so great was one scene in particular where he is talking outside to the film makers about why reading Bram Stoker's Dracula made him sad (you have to watch it, this is what acting is all about). Malkovich was haunting as the obsessive director, willing to go to any extreme to complete his masterpiece, and the question as to who the real monster is, Murnau or Shreck, will be something you'll be asking yourself. The special features are worth noting, Nicolas Cage produced the film and offers an interview, as does Dafoe, both of which are great and interesting to those who cannot get enough of the film. All in all, Shadow of the Vampire is an underrated hauntingly funny masterpiece that vampire movie fans will mostly enjoy.
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