F.W. Murnau's 1922 horror classic. Nosferatu: Symphony of Terroris atypical Dracula device. The departures from Bram Stoker's epistolary novel were made deliberately to circumvent copyright violations. But Murnau's vampire, Count Orlok (Max Schreck), established the tropes inherent in vampire allegories, including the undead being the carrier of plague and thematic stand-in for xenophobia.
Since then, every adaptation Nosferatu used Murnau's film as the basis for the development of the Orlok myths. For example, Werner Herzog 1979 Nosferatu Vampire indulges in grotesquely beautiful images, while later Nosferatu tells a story of obsession and the fear that surrounds it. But no film has treated Murnau's classic quite like E. Elias Merhige's. Shadow of the Vampirewhich fabricates the behind-the-scenes production of the 1922 film with a satirical twist.
IN Vampire's ShadowAn actor named Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe) is cast as Orlok Murnau (John Malkovich), but the director's desire for authenticity poses a major challenge to the film's production. It turns out that Dafoe's Shrek is a real vampire, and Murnau's promise that he can feast on his co-star Greta Schroeder (Catherine McCormack) after filming is the only thing stopping him from ripping people's throats out. To disguise Shrek's true nature (who is naturally Orlok-like, with gaunt skin, clawed nails and sharp fangs), Murnau presents him as a method actor, comically dedicated to his craft.
Merhige's film alternates between terror and comedy, with the right dose of dark humor found in the original (and almost every adaptation). The only exception to this rule is Robert Eggers' version, whose self-seriousness permeates every aspect of the doomed central love story. In contrast to this, Vampire's Shadow feels almost gleeful in his subversive take on Murnau's vampire story: he's not interested in the text itself, but in the metatextual implications of the filming. Nosferatu.
To this end, Merhige's horror-comedy mimics the actual production circumstances of the 1922 and 1979 films: by the end there are virtually no funds, only one camera available for filming, and a rushed resolution in which Murnau used a metronome to match the actors. Merhige's meta-commentary is somewhat ironic, but it reimagines Murnau and Schreck as terrifying figures come to life and haunt. Dafoe's Shrek, playing Orlok, exudes a manic hunger that the character instinctively succumbs to, but he also yearns for mortality, as seen when he is captivated by shots of the sun rising. But these moments of genuine curiosity are overshadowed by his need for food, as Shrek succumbs to an insane thirst and kills almost everyone on the set.
Malkovich's Murnau is the big monster here as he continues to film these murders to complete his Nosferatu. Vampire's Shadow satirizes the idea of filmmaking taken to the extreme, to the point where the moral compass disintegrates as the artist gets closer to achieving his vision. Compared to Murnau's willingness to gloss over countless deaths, Shrek's bloodlust seems restrained, as his primary instinct is to feed only for the sake of survival. The turning point in the film only comes when Murnau, in his arrogance, threatens the immortal vampire, goading Shrek into attacking on provocation.
After Murnau films the final scene Vampire's ShadowShrek is burning in the sun, set in the windswept Heligoland archipelago. It's an image designed to instill horror, with a laudanum-addled Murnau demanding the end plate from his traumatized crew members, calmly declaring, “I think we've got it,” and finally stopping the camera. By presenting Murnau as more monstrous than the undead of the night, Merhige takes the vampire allegory into the creative process, where the life is literally and metaphorically sucked out of a filmmaking doomed to end in tragedy. Only Murnau seems unaffected by the carnage for which he is directly responsible, too absorbed in the nectar of artistic immortality for which he is willing to pay any price.
To put things into perspective, Vampire's Shadow doesn't offer any meaningful interpretation of the original characters Nosferatuas it draws on cinema verité (also known as verité cinema, a style of filmmaking that values realism) and the metatextual myth-making of Schreck and Murnau. This is nothing more than Herzog's interpretation of vampirism as an infection that cannot be survived, or Eggers' dramatic odyssey, imbued with suffering and sacrifice. It is also not an exact copy of the 1922 original, like David Lee Fisher's painting. Nosferatuwhich requires more stylistic liberties than thematic ones.
This lack of generality makes Vampire's Shadow A Nosferatu an adaptation like no other. The Dafoe-Malkovich duo is reason enough to check out this unforgettable tragicomedy, but it's a must-see experience for anyone who loves the vampire myth and the wide-ranging interpretations it can accommodate.
