Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

Interesting facts

• Box office: $11.2M
• Budget: $8M
• Earned 1.4× its budget
• Filmed in: Luxembourg
• Awards: 0 · Nominations: 2

Shadow of the Vampire is a 2000 horror meta-film directed by E. Elias Merhige, written by Steven Katz, and starring John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe. It is a fictionalized account of the making of the classic vampire film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922), directed by F. W. Murnau, during which the film crew begin to have disturbing suspicions about their lead actor, Max Schreck. The film's premise is based on an urban legend which suggests that Schreck was not an actor, but in fact a vampire himself. It borrows several techniques of silent films, including the use of intertitles to explain elided action, and iris lenses.

Production

The premise of Count Orlok being played by an actual Nosferatu in the eponymous film was recorded by Ado Kyrou, who in his 1953 book Le Surréalisme au Cinéma incorrectly wrote: "The credits name the music hall actor Max Schreck as the vampire's performer, but it is well-known that this information is deliberately untrue.

The film was produced by Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films. Cage originally intended to play Schreck, but later cast Dafoe when he expressed interest in the role. Cage stated he always wanted Malkovich as Murnau. Cage has previously acted with Malkovich in Con Air (1997) and Dafoe in Wild at Heart (1990).

The film's working title was Burned to Light, but Merhige decided to change the name of the film when Dafoe asked, "Who's Ed?"; the actor thought the title was Burn Ed to Light. To create the aesthetic of old film, cinematographer Lou Bogue shot much of the film with Kodak Vision 800T film stock – a high speed specialty stock with very coarse grain – in Super 35mm format, which further enhanced the effect when cropped and enlarged to anamorphic.

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