SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE
John Malkovich
Willem Dafoe

Shadow Of The Vampire is a fictionalisation of the making of F.W Murnau's silent classic Nosferatu. John Malkovich plays Murnau and, in a bid to make his film as authentic as ever, he hires a real vampire known as Max Shreck to play the part of Count Orlock, a totally unrecognisable Willem Dafoe.

However none of the crew knows this and in a attempt to keep them from finding out, he tells them that Shreck is a character actor, his scenes will only be filmed at night, and the crew must refer to him as Count Orlock. However Orlock's fee for being in the movie is the beautiful Greta played by Catherine McCormack but she, like the other members of the crew, knows nothing about this deal. As the film begins to take longer and longer to make, Orlock's patience begins to wear thin and the make-up supervisor goes missing, followed by the sudden illness of the Photographer Muller.

As Murnau struggles to keep control over his leading man to leave his crew alone he is forced to tell them the truth about Schreck but, beacause they are stranded on an island, the only chance of survival they may have is to finish the film and let Schreck have Greta. Malkovich as ever is brilliant as a sometimes eccentric Murnau, with Willem Dafoe putting in a Golden Globe nominated performance. Look out for Eddie Izzard as Gustav Von Wangenheim. Though Shadow Of The Vampire may not be to everyone's taste it is definitely one worth checking out.

8/10 Ian Thomson