Shadow of the Vampire

INHALT

John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe gleefully sink their teeth into a couple of juicy roles in this film about German expressionist director FW Murnau. Malkovich plays Murnau in a curiously comic reconstruction of the making of his classic vampire film Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horrors (1922) - controversially based on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Eschewing historical accuracy, the film portrays the director as a fanatic, who hires a real bloodsucker (Max Schreck played by Dafoe) to star as the vampire, promising him the neck of his leading lady (Catherine McCormack) in return for his performing duties. Where Gods and Monsters was a poignant look at the declining years of horror director James Whale, this is more of a dark farce that starts promisingly but has fewer grand ideas up its sleeve than it thinks.