13 Nights of Shocktober: Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

by A.J.

Happy Halloween! The countdown is over and Halloween is finally upon us. Tonight, hopefully, you'll be relaxing, eating some candy, and watching a scary, or not-so-scary, movie. There are a lot of options for tonight and I hope I've been of some help. Here is my final recommendation to help bring an end to Shocktober:

Night 13: Happy Happy Halloween!

“He’s a Stanislavsky lunatic! That’s what’s wrong with him!”

Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

The idea behind Shadow of a Vampire is a novel and clever one: director F.W. Murnau found a real vampire to star in his 1922 silent horror masterpiece, Nosferatu. As you can imagine, this would cause problems with the shoot. Shadow of the Vampire is not just a horror movie, or a vampire movie, it is about the creation of one of the most important and scariest horror films ever made. Nosferatu is still a chilling and unsettling film to watch. Shadow of the Vampire exists in the shadow of Nosferatu, but it is no less a creative, creepy, and spooky film.

John Malkovich plays German director F.W. Murnau, an auteur if there ever was one. Only a real vampire can satisfy his need for authenticity and desire to make a film that transcends entertainment and becomes immortal art. He is addressed by his crew as “herr doctor” and poetically pontificates about cinema and art. On the train ride to the shooting location in Czechoslovakia he says, “we are scientists engaged in the creation of memory, but our memory will neither blur nor fade.”

When the production leaves the safety and control of the studio in Berlin they finally meet the mysterious character actor Max Schreck who is to play the vampire. Schreck’s methods are “unconventional” and his background is hard to pin down. Murnau claims that Schreck studied with Stanislavsky, the Russian who pioneered acting techniques that would become known in modern times as “the method.” Schreck will only appear in full makeup, will remain in character for the entire shoot, and will only shoot his scenes at night.

Willem Dafoe plays the vampire in question, who Murnau introduces to the cast and crew as Max Schreck. The real Max Schreck gave one of the most chilling and iconic performances in horror film history. If you’ve never Nosferatu, you’d likely still recognize the pale vampire or his stiff silhouette and strangely long knifelike fingers. At all times he seems otherworldly and monstrous. Schreck so disappears into the character of Count Orlok that is not difficult to accept the idea that he might have been a real vampire.

Portraying Schreck’s vampire in a movie about the making of Nosferatu is a tall order, but Dafoe is more than up to task. For his superb performance Dafoe received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Dafoe, still slightly recognizable under all that vampire makeup, also disappears into his role as the vampire. He plays Schreck with a dark sense of humor. This vampire seems to be aware of the absurdity of being a vampire pretending to be an actor pretending to be vampire. However humorous Dafoe undeniably is as Schreck, he is also menacing and chilling. In one scene he answers the questions of two drunk crew members about being a vampire. They think he is being "in character," but his answers are simultaneously unnerving and melancholy. Schreck’s payment for participating in the shoot is the lead actress, Gretta (Catherine McCormack).

Crew members fall mysteriously ill and the rest of the cast and crew are uneasy around Schreck. As the vampire feeds off the crew he jeopardizes the production which infuriates Murnau. Malkovich plays Murnau as an artist obsessed. He is willing to achieve his vision at all costs. His interactions with Dafoe as Schreck result in some darkly comedic scenes. Murnau condescends to Schreck and Schreck is mischievous and petulant. Shadow of the Vampire is a movie about making movies, a favorite genre of mine, and there is some good showbiz humor. Murnau yells at Schreck for feeding on the cinematographer, “why not the script girl?” Later in the movie Schreck suggests that the writer is no longer necessary. In one scene, Eddie Izzard, playing one of the actors in the film within a film, accidentally cuts his finger for real in a scene with Schreck only to be attacked by the crazed character actor. Izzard’s character shouts, “He’s a Stanislavsky lunatic! That’s what’s wrong with him!”

Several memorable scenes and images from Nosferatu are recreated in Shadow of the Vampire. The film does not draw unnecessary attention to these scenes and they match same spooky tone and atmosphere of the rest of the movie. Dafoe’s vampire in the recreated scenes is equally as striking and frightening as the real Schreck’s vampire. The supporting cast is outstanding and includes: Eddie Izzard, Cary Elwes, Catherine McCormack, and Udo Keir.

This film does an excellent job creating an eerie, portentous atmosphere transporting you to another time and place that feels paradoxically ethereal and all too real. There is very little blood and gore. Instead of a few horrific set pieces, Shadow of the Vampire opts for a sustained ominous mood punctuated by the presence of a monster. Directed by E. Elias Merhige and written by Steven Katz, Shadow of the Vampire is an homage to a landmark horror film and also an effective horror film in its own right.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 1: Silent Night,
“Does this word not sound like the midnight call of the Bird of Death?”

Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922)

It is not an exaggeration at all to state that German director F.W. Murnau’s silent film Nosferatu is one of the most influential horror films of all time. It is one of the first vampire films and one of the first film adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Murnau could not get permission from Bram Stoker’s widow to adapt the novel for the screen so he changed some plot points and the names of the characters. Count Dracula became Count Orlok and the setting became Wisborg instead of England. Despite the changes, the plot of the film will be instantly recognizable to anyone that’s read the novel or seen any movie version of Dracula. Nosferatu along with Murnau’s 1928 drama Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans cement his status as one of the early master filmmakers. 

Some of the most iconic images of horror cinema and the silent era are found in this film. If you’ve never seen Nosferatu, or even if you don’t watch horror films, you would recognize scenes or images of Max Schreck as the monstrous vampire, Count Orlok. This vampiric count is unlike any other portrayal of Dracula that has ever been put on screen. This vampire is not a seducer, lover, tragic figure, or antihero. Orlok is the vampire as Monster. He is hideous and frightening in appearance. There is no allure to this vampire. He is simply an unstoppable force of evil. Orlok is oddly thin, stiff, pale and ghostly white, with features only resembling those of a human. He wears an overcoat, not a cape, buttoned tight, and moves slowly. His fluid movements resemble those of a snake. There are too many memorable shots of Orlok to list but I’m sure you’d recognize the shot of his monstrous silhouette moving up a flight of stairs with his thin arm outstretched, knifelike fingers leading the way. In another shot Orlok rises stiff as a board out of his coffin. Every time we see him is eerie and chilling. Orlok is the most frightening vampire I’ve seen on film.

F.W. Murnau wanted Nosferatu shot outside of the studio in real, existing locations because he thought the film would be more frightening if it took place in the real, recognizable world. However, there are traces of German Expressionism, a visual style that rejected realism and sought to portray the world in a skewed and dreamlike way, in Nosferatu's eerie imagery and atmosphere. The night scenes are tinged in blue, which was a common way for silent movies to signify a night scene, but it also adds to the overall eerie tone of movie. The font of the intertitles is skewed slightly so even these add to the atmosphere of the film. The stop motion effects look dated but still effective. This movie uses atmosphere and eerie, unearthly imagery to engage and frighten the viewer. The scene of Orlok loading up his carriage with coffins, then getting in one of the coffins, followed by the lid moving on its own to seal him in, and then the carriage taking off on its own is genuinely eerie and creepy to watch. The film is sped up so that Orlok moves with an inhuman speed. There is no violence or gore in this movie, but there are plenty of spooky and creepy scenes. If you are skittish of horror movies but still want to watch something spooky this Shocktober, Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror is a great film to watch once the sun goes down. 

Best Pictures #4: 1927-28 (1st) Academy Awards, Unique & Artistic Picture* Nominee, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

by A.J.

1927-28 (1^st) Academy Awards Unique & Artistic Picture* Nominee

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I can think of few other silent movies as deservedly lauded and revered, as F.W. Murnau’s silent classic, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. It received the award for Best Unique and Artistic Picture, and ended up being the only film to ever receive that award because the category was eliminated the following year. Like The Crowd, the story of Sunrise is simple: A husband and wife living a simple life in the country are pulled apart when the man is seduced by another woman, but brought back together as he tries desperately to earn his wife’s forgiveness, trust, and love. The setting, as we’re told in the opening titles, is “of every place and no place.” The characters do not even have names; they are the Man (George O’Brien), his Wife (Janet Gaynor), and the Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston). These simplicities belie the technical mastery of the language of the moving image to tell a story, convey ideas and themes, and affect audiences.

Murnau did not like the use of intertitles (title cards and dialogue cards) so they are used sparingly, and after a certain point in the film they are not used at all and the story is told purely though images. These images, including the performances of the actors, don’t just show us the plot, they express the inner emotions of the characters. After his romantic encounter with the glamourous Woman from the City, the Man decides to kill his wife. However, his slow, lumbering walk conveys the conflict and guilt he feels. He walks as though the burden of his decision is literally weighing down on his shoulders. He lumbers like Frankenstein’s monster would in James Whale’s 1931 film. Murnau actually had lead weights put in George O’Brien’s shoes to make his steps slow and heavy. We are relieved, naturally, when he does not hurt his Wife, but each of them are devastated by what almost happened.

Sunrise, also like The Crowd, has two distinct halves each with a dramatic shift in tone. The first half of Sunrise feels somber and potentially tragic. The second half, after the Man and Wife reconcile on an excursion to the city across the lake, is romantic and optimistic. In these scenes in the city, we see the Man and Wife from the front whereas in the first half of the film the camera was always at their backs. The Man no longer walks like a golem. They smile and laugh as they walk through the City, holding each other’s arms as though they are the only two people in the world.

Sunrise was the first film F.W. Murnau made after being brought to America by producer William Fox. It was the first film released by Fox with a Movietone soundtrack. It had music, sound effects, and even some unsynchronized words in a crowd scene which audiences would have heard coming from the film itself. However, there were no characters speaking—true “talkies” would come along very soon. Despite the presence of a complete soundtrack, it still uses images first and foremost to convey story and emotion.

The entire film is rich with technical creativity and impressive shots that all enhance the story. The special effects in Sunrise were all done “in-camera,” meaning that they were created using the camera and not added in later. Superimposed images, miniatures, and matte paintings are all done with such precision and inventive flair that they remain impressive today. In one of the most famous scenes in Sunrise we see the backs of the Man and the Woman from the City as they sit together, and visions of the City, bright and carnival-like, appear before them. In another scene, we see the Man, visibly troubled by his decision to get rid of his wife, but wrapped in the ghostly arms of the Woman from the City; her image is first superimposed above him, then appears all around him. Early in the film the camera glides smoothly alongside the Man as he walks through marshy, uneven ground. Murnau and his cinematographers achieved this effect by putting dolly tracks on the ceiling of the set, rather than the ground, so that the camera could easily pass over the uneven terrain. At a time when many films were still a series of static shots of people in rooms, Murnau’s camera seems to fly.

In the modern era, there are many films in which the spectacle of special effects distracts from the story and characters and becomes the focus of the film. The old-school (the first school, actually) in-camera special effects used in Sunrise may seem quaint today, but they are quite technically sophisticated. Using such inventive and impressive special effects to truly enhance the story is a trait which I think will always be rare, but will always be the sign of a quality film and master filmmaker. I think any modern moviegoer would enjoy and appreciate what they see in Sunrise and, fortunately, it is readily available on DVD and Blu-ray. This is a simple story, but not a simple movie. Its dreamlike feel, subtly wondrous effects, and nameless characters turn this story into a fable—something that exists out of time and remains as magical and powerful as ever.

Nominee: Fox

Producer: William Fox

Director: F.W. Murnau

Screenplay: Carl Mayer, from an original theme by Herman Sudermann

Cast: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston

Release Date: September 23^rd, 1927

Total Nominations: 4, including Unique & Artistic Picture

Wins: Unique & Artistic Picture, Actress-Janet Gaynor, Cinematography-Charles Rosher and Karl Struss

Other Nominations: Art Direction-Rochus Gliese

*The 1st Academy Awards had two categories for Best Picture: Unique & Artistic Picture and Outstanding Picture. The Outstanding Picture category is widely considered to be the forerunner to Best Picture since the Unique & Artistic Picture category was discontinued. Since at the time each category was thought of as equally the top award I have included the Unique & Artistic Picture nominees as Best Picture nominees.