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List Price: $14.98Amazon.com's Price: $8.49 You Save: $6.49 (43%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781588177919
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1588177912
Label: Lions Gate
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Lions Gate
Region Code: 1
Release Date: June 17, 2003
Running Time: 91 minutes
Sales Rank: 8799
Studio: Lions Gate
Theatrical Release Date: January 26, 2001
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Clever, engaging, and boosted by the sublime casting of Willem Dafoe as Nosferatu actor Max Schreck, Shadow of the Vampire is a film full of good ideas that are only partially developed. Its premise is ripe with possibilities, but the movie's too slight to register much impact, so you're left to relish its delightful performances and director E. Elias Merhige's affectionately tongue-in-cheek homage to a landmark of German silent cinema. John Malkovich is aptly loony as the eccentric director F.W. Murnau, whose passion in filming the 1922 classic Nosferatu leads to the extreme casting of Schreck as the vampire, a vision of evil who, in this movie's delightfully twisted imagination, actually is a vampire, sucking the blood of cast and crewmembers who've dismissed Schreck as an overzealous method actor.
As these on-set maladies and 'accidents' continue, Schreck wields greater control over Murnau, who descends into a kind of obsessive art-for-art's-sake madness until diva costar Greta Schroeder (Catherine McCormack, doing wonderful work) is served up as the actor's ultimate motivation. Merhige and his actors (including Cary Elwes, as intrepid cameraman Fritz Wagner) have great fun with this ghastly escapade, and the humor is kept delicately subtle to balance the movie's artistic aspirations. To that end, Dafoe is just right, his bald pate and gaunt features a perfect match for the mysterious Schreck, his grimace and talon-like fingers suggesting a human vulture on the prowl. Likewise, the re-creation of Nosferatu's expressionist style is both fanciful and brilliantly authentic. Too bad, then, that this movie suffers a mild case of vampiric anemia; if it shared the depth and richness of, say, Ed Wood, this might have been a cult classic for the ages. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - don't bet on this Bete Noir
Shadow of a Vampire has all the ingredients of a black, black film, but comes off no more than a dark shade of grey. Still, not too shabby for a film whose brilliant acting includes a cast comprising Willem Dafoe, Eddie Lizard, and John Malkovitch.
Rating:  - Nosferatu for real
Willem Dafoe stars as the actor Max Shrek, playing Nosferatu; except he's not an actor he really is a vampire. That is the premise of this film. Its based on the 1921 classic silent movie and works on neally every level. As simple entertainment its thrilling and occasionally quite funny. On a deeper level, like most horror films it plays on our darkest fears and our primal instincts.
The acting from Dafoe and Malkovich is magical, and the supporting cast including Eddie Izzard, are ... Read More
Rating:  - One of my favorite movies--I had to own it!
This movie is thrilling in every way--from the story line, the great actors/actresses, cinematography, etc. Every time I watch it, I seem to catch one little thing I missed before. One recommendation: If possible, you MUST watch "Nosferatu" before you see "Shadow of the Vampire."
Rating: - A strange Vampire film with both teeth and brains.
Produced by Nicolas Cage, Shadow of the Vampire is a cleverly fictionalized account of the production of the F.W. Murnau classic vampire film Nosferatu (1922) (not to be confused with Werner Herzog's excellent 1979 remake Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht starring Klaus Kinski). During the filming of the 1922 original, the crew became suspicious their lead actor (Max Schreck) was more than what he seemed, which is the basis of Shadow of the Vampire. Set in 1922, and while filming in an old ... Read More
Rating: - Shadow of the Vampire
Willem Dafoe gives an outstanding performance as usual. The rest of the cast also performed well, including Udo Kier, who has come so far from the camp/trash Andy Warhol horror flicks Flesh For Frankenstein / Blood for Dracula 2 DVD Set Criterion PAL. I enjoyed watching him as much as Dafoe! But John Malkovich, plays John Malkovich. His acting here as in most of his movies is worst than Udo Kier in the Warhol films. By no means let this stop you from buying this movie because, not even Malkovich's ... Read More
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