At the Movies: 'Shadow of Vampire'

What if they made a vampire movie and a real bloodsucker showed up to play the lead? <br><br>That's the savory premise of ``Shadow of the Vampire,'' a fancifully fictionalized account of the

Wednesday, December 27th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

What if they made a vampire movie and a real bloodsucker showed up to play the lead?

That's the savory premise of ``Shadow of the Vampire,'' a fancifully fictionalized account of the making of the 1922 silent-film classic ``Nosferatu.''

Darkly comic and creepier than many straightforward horror flicks, ``Shadow of the Vampire'' is a bright and original homage to pre-talkie days. The movie simultaneously spoofs and honors the overarching conventions of the silent era, when makeup was spread with a shovel and every gesture was a Victorian stage flourish.

It's also a wickedly perverse metaphor on art for art's sake and the vampiric lengths to which a filmmaker will go to breathe life â€” or death â€” into his creation.

John Malkovich plays ``Nosferatu'' director F.W. Murnau, a pioneer of German expressionist cinema so fanatical that he casts a real vampire (Willem Dafoe) to star in the film. Murnau tells cast and crew that his actor, ``Max Schreck,'' is a devotee of Stanislavsky method performing who will only appear in costume and character and only shoot scenes at night.

Yet having a vampire on set proves a tad worse than having a prima donna throw a hissy fit. Crew members fall ill or vanish as the vampire starts chowing down.

Murnau, determined to get ``our very own painting on our very own cave wall'' in the can, tries to hold the vampire at bay with reasoning, bargaining and threats. He lets Schreck prey on less necessary members of the film shoot, then ultimately and ineffectually falls back on the standard weapons in a movie director's arsenal.

``I will replace you with the double!'' Murnau shouts at the vampire. ``I will do every scene of yours with the double. You, you will have no close-ups whatsoever.''

Malkovich is excellent as the imperious Murnau, who is so caught up in his conceits that he believes his film can give eternal life to an already immortal vampire. There's fine support from Catherine McCormack as the haughty leading lady, Cary Elwes as a flamboyant cameraman and Udo Kier as the money-conscious producer.

But as with Murnau and his real vampire, director E. Elias Merhige's film draws its true life from a remarkable, Oscar-worthy performance by Dafoe. Though done up as Schreck's pointy-eared, emaciated Nosferatu for the entire movie, he projects himself miles beyond the makeup.

Dafoe's eyes carry the unimaginable weight of centuries one minute, impish glee at the prospect of a starlet's throat the next. His languorous intonations menace and amuse in the same breath. His movements flit between corpse-like inertia and bat-like frenzy.

As a vampire pretending to be an actor pretending to be a vampire, Dafoe infuses fresh life into a long line of hackneyed cinematic bloodsuckers, creating something innovative even as he imitates some of the cliches of his vampire predecessors.

Merhige cleverly uses confrontations between Murnau and the vampire to show their similarities. In his artistic obsession, Malkovich's Murnau consumes the spirit of his cast and crew. He is reckless with their lives and remorseless about their fate.

``You and I are not so different,'' the vampire bemusedly tells Murnau.

``Shadow of the Vampire'' occasionally stumbles because of patchwork editing, with puzzling, cryptic transitions sometimes disrupting the movie's flow.

Perhaps that's a fitting tribute to silent film, where continuity of action often suffered from hasty shooting schedules. But it's of little benefit to today's audiences to serve up a film with such noticeable chop.

``Shadow of the Vampire,'' from an original screenplay by Steven Katz, runs 89 minutes and is rated R for some sexuality, drug content, violence and language.

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Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G â€” General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG â€” Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 â€” Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R â€” Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 â€” No one under 17 admitted.