“Method acting gone wrong!”

Shadow of the Vampire - E. Elias Merhige - 2000

A look into the depraved mind of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau the director of the infamous Nosfaratu, whilst analysing the “legend” of Max Schreck the method actor… or was he truly a Vampire. Both played by the insanely talented John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe.

Nosfaratu has been one of my favourite horror films and actually in my top 10. The film was created in the early 1920’s and has some of the best lighting and shots in the history of cinema, FW Murnau was a visionary and way before his time. For those of you not in the know, he originally wanted to create a film called ‘Dracula’ however Florence Balcombe (Stokers wife) wouldn’t sell him the rights. So to tell a story short, he plagiarised the complete story and swapped Drac for Nos. However the film still holds today as one of the creepiest and bone chilling films to date.

Back to the review!

The Film looks at how Nos was filmed and explores the fable that Schreck was actually a vampire and just just a superb method actor. I really enjoyed this dry witty drama/horror. There were moments when Dafoe would actually give me the chills and other moments when I thought to myself I've seen that expression before (Green Goblin). The acting alone was superb and Dafoe’s make-up was insanely good.

I particularly loved the recreation of some of the most iconic scenes from Nos in B/W with near perfect lens and lighting which really hit a nostalgic bone in me and made me enjoy the film even more.

I did feel that some of the side characters were a little bit lacklustre and made me care much less for the scenes where either Malkovich or Dafoe were not in.

8/10