Shadow of the Vampire
D: E. Elias Merhige; with John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Cary Elwes. Who’s the creepiest beasty haunting the multiplex this holiday season? It ain’t the Grinch, baby. (Not without the voice of Boris Karloff, anyway.) Instead of that lime-green scoundrel, check out the truly deranged Dafoe as the title character in this heavily fictionalized account of the making of the F.W. Murnau’s silent 1922 classic Nosferatu. Looking like James Carville in desperate need of a rigorous orthodontics program, Dafoe not only chews the scenery, he gnaws the necks of his co-stars and channels both the original Nosferatu, Max Shreck, as well as a latter-day Klaus Kinski. Malkovich is equally shrieky as the effete Murnau, and Elwes, as Murnau’s cameraman, is, well, pretty damn Aryan and a far cry from “The Dread Pirate Roberts.” Not your typical holiday fare, of course, but you’ve got to admit it sure beats another National Lampoon’s Vacation outing. (Jan. 19)
(Shadow of the Vampire made its regional premiere at the Austin Film Festival.)
This article appears in November 24 • 2000.