Shadow of the Vampire

The setting is Weimar-era Germany. Shadow of the Vampire is a fictional look at the making of the movie Nosferatu. Instead of this being the “true story” of the making of Nosferatu, this gem of a movie turns out to be a vampire movie about a vampire movie. John Malkovich is F.W. Murnau, the director of Nosferatu. Willem Dafoe is Max Schreck, the actor who portrayed the vampire Count Orlock in Nosferatu.

Malkovich portrays Murnau as the sort of director who will do anything, make any deal so that his vampire movie is as authentic as possible. When he was denied the rights to film Dracula by Bram Stoker’s estate, he plagiarized the book, renamed the characters and the story settings, and filmed it anyway. When asked by the movie’s producer about the particulars of the actor who was to play the vampire, Murnau was evasive. Instead of filming his movie on a soundstage in Berlin, he wanted to film on location in Czechoslovakia. After the movie company relocated to the location for further shooting, Murnau was asked about the “extras.” He nodded his head at the locals sitting at a table in the hotel restaurant and told his actors and crew “you’re looking at them.” When one of the actors protested that the extras can’t act, Murnau said “they don’t need to act, they need to be.”

Gustav von Wangenheim [Eddie Izzard] told the crew about the actor who would portray Count Orlock, Max Schreck. He’s a character actor who is from the Reinhardt stage company. He’s a method actor who submerges himself in the parts he plays. Once in character, Schreck stays in character in full make-up. In one scene, Gustav’s character walked into Count Orlock’s castle. Schreck appeared out of the darkness and scared Gustav half to death. He’s got long pointy ears, has a pointy face, a deathlike pallor, and long boney fingers at the end of which are very long fingernails. He’s very creepy looking, his behavior unsettling, very convincing as a vampire. It was the first time Gustav and Schreck met. Murnau loved Gustav’s scared-shitless reaction to Schreck. Not only was Gustav scared of Schreck, but the cameraman [who quickly fell ill] wass as well. The producer suspected…Schreck wasn’t part of the Reinhardt company, he said to himself. He asked Murnau where he really found Schreck. Murnau confessed he found Schreck locally.

After one of the movie takes, Gustav discovered Schreck biting Wolf the cameraman’s throat. As filming progressed, Wolf got sicker and had to be sent back to Germany and replaced. Murnau later confronted Schreck/Orlock after Wolf fell ill. He asked “How dare you destroy my photographer! Why him you monster? Why not the script girl?” Schreck/Orlock said “The script girl…I’ll eat her later.” It’s revealed that Murnau and Schreck/Orlock made a deal – finish the picture, and when it’s done, Schreck/Orlock could have Greta, the leading lady. All Murnau wanted was for Schreck/Orlock to leave his actors and crew alone until filming was completed. So Schreck wasn’t a character actor – he was a real vampire!

One night while the head writer and the producer were getting drunk on schnapps, they encountered Schreck/Orlock. They invited Schreck/Orlock to join them. They began to ask him questions. How long has he been a vampire? Where was he born? Was he born at all? Schreck/Orlock couldn’t remember because it happened a long time ago. How did he become a vampire? It was a woman, he said. What did he think of the technical merits of Bram Stoker’s book Dracula? He went into great detail what he thought of the book. Then he snatched a bat out of the air and drank its blood. The writer and the producer were extremely impressed – what a great actor Max Schreck was! What dedication! If only they knew…

When it came time to film Orlock’s death scene, Schreck could barely contain himself. He wanted Greta very badly. The scene was to be filmed in an old bunker. Greta was in the death scene, and when she saw that Schreck had no reflection in a mirror, she freaked out. Murnau shot her full of drugs so that she could work. Schreck couldn’t wait to have Greta any longer, so he bit her neck started drinking her dry. The new cameraman shot Schreck several times, only to have Schreck shake off the gunshots and break the cameraman’s neck. Then he choked the producer to death. While all this was happening Murnau kept filming. After everyone but Murnau died at Schreck’s hand, the rest of the crew broke into the bunker and let the sunlight in, killing Schreck. Murnau had his realistic vampire movie at last, but in the end it was done at the cost of his own sanity.

The making of the movie Nosferatu didn’t happen the way it was depicted in this movie, but the story is an entertaining one. This isn’t your typical vampire movie. Willem Dafoe was outstanding as Max Schreck. He had me convinced he was a real vampire. John Malkovich was equally good as the ego-driven director. Eddie Izzard proved himself to be more than a comedic talent. The acting was top-notch, the writing equally good. The attention to detail about movie-making in the silent-film era was “spot on.” I recommend this movie highly.