Ultimately, this picture’s entertainment value will depend largely on the audience’s knowledge of the source material – receiving such a comically morbid spoofing – even if modest amusement can be easily obtained from the performances.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 29, 2024

Does this mean Shadow of the Vampire is good? Sort of. Does it means it's bad? Sometimes. But it's usually entertaining.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 28, 2023

Catherine McCormack is an over-the-top delight as the neurotic object of Schreck's affection, and Dafoe, in a performance that's both skin-crawling and sympathetic, more than lives up to the prerelease hype.

| May 27, 2022

It’s a puerile premise, made even sillier by highfalutin dialogue and somnolent pacing that makes us wonder at times if they are pulling our leg or embalming a classic silent picture in the process of trying to emulate it.

| Apr 5, 2022

The film is anchored by Malkovich's serious commitment to portraying a director who will do anything to make the movie he sees in his head. And, of course, Dafoe's darkly humorous take...

| Mar 28, 2022

"Shadow of the Vampire" is a gory and grandiose metaphor for the torments and sacrifices made, extracted, and endured in the name of art.

| Oct 19, 2019

Where Gods and Monsters was a poignant look at the declining years of horror director James Whale, this is more of a dark farce that starts promisingly but has fewer grand ideas up its sleeve than it thinks.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 8, 2018

shines forth as a labor of love

| Original Score: B | May 24, 2013

Vampire satire has some creepy moments.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 28, 2010

This strictly-for-the-cinéastes fantasy is wild, warped fun.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 15, 2010

This is a dark, gothic, and creepy film with excellent performances from John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe.

| Apr 29, 2009

... [I]f you like your horror thoughtful and provoking, this is your movie.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 25, 2008

The screenplay, by Steven Katz, suffers from arch, almost unspeakably theatrical dialogue, and, as Murnau, John Malkovich recites his lines as if monomania were synonymous with monotonic: He drains the drama of blood.

| Sep 25, 2007

An imaginatively twisted lesson in film history and a glorious gothic comedy-drama.

| Sep 25, 2007

Wholly absorbing and inspired in parts, this carefully crafted curio dares to suggest that Murnau made a Faustian pact with an actual vampire to play the title role in exchange for the neck of the film's leading lady at production's end.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2007

At best, this is a dawdling, toothless riff on a vastly superior film. At worst, it's character assassination.

| Original Score: F | Sep 23, 2007

Shadow feels like a missed opportunity.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 14, 2007

Intriguing, eccentric, sporadically entertaining tosh (but tosh all the same).

| Jun 24, 2006

Through layers of makeup depicting the rat-faced, undead Schreck, a vampire who turns not into a bat but, worse, a demanding prima donna, Dafoe doesn't go over the top, though he does plant his flag at the summit.

| Apr 5, 2006

Incredibly entertaining even without knowledge of Nosferatu.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 31, 2005