Shadow of the Vampire
Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment | Release Date: December 29, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's a mesmerizing spectacle. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Manages to turn a highly dubious concept into a subtle and deliciously mordant comedy. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
"Willem Dafoe is Max Schreck." I put quotes around that because it's not just a line for a movie ad but the truth: He embodies the Schreck of "Nosferatu" so uncannily that when real scenes from the silent classic are slipped into the frame, we don't notice a difference. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeJay Carr
He's (Dafoe) the stuff bad dreams are made of. He's also the best movie vampire since Schreck's original. He deserves a bloody Oscar. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Paints a vivid and darkly humorous picture of a world where directors are all-powerful and vampires are real; whether you want to buy into either fantasy is up to you. I did, and had a grand old time. Read full review
84
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
Might be the most original film of the year. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Kicky, elaborately constructed fantasy. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Diabolically amusing without plunging into the Mel Brooks zone, and it's smart without being pedantic. And it's genuinely scary at times. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
At once wildly metaphorical and distressingly literal-minded, Shadow of the Vampire tries, with mixed success, to be scary, funny and profound all at once. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
Without question, Shadow of the Vampire is a stately and elegant horror film, interwoven with delicious strands of black comedy. Read full review
75
New York PostJonathan Foreman
A clever, funny, extended joke about ruthless directors, method actors and the power of the cinema. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Works on several playful levels. Most obviously, it is a horror movie in which life imitates art on a movie set. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Dafoe never reverts to campy, movie-monster gestures but seems liberated, consumed by his character, inspired to give a performance that's intuitive and otherworldly. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Hypnotic and fun. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Malkovich is wryly amusing as German director F.W. Murnau, and Dafoe steals the show as a vampire playing an actor playing a vampire. Read full review
75
USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna
Feast upon a career-peak Willem Dafoe performance as a bat-eared fiend who is foul, funny, ferocious, forlorn and unforgettable. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
His (Dafoe's) re-creation of Schreck is an Oscar-level performance, but more than that, it's an unforgettable one: great, scary, horrifically funny. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Willem Dafoe's performance in Shadow of the Vampire is so irresistible it not only breaks that cycle but turns an otherwise just adequate film into something everyone will want to take a look at. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
A creepy, clever, film buff's delight of a fantasy. Read full review
70
Film.comPeter Brunette
It's a great ride, gorgeous, silly and deeply intellectual by turns, but, for all its inventive fireworks, sad to say, it finally doesn't quite work. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyPaul Malcolm
Malkovich and Dafoe play off each other with a devilish hamminess. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
For all its stentorian performances, though, Shadow of the Vampire is a bit much, from the detailed period sets to the final, bloody scene. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Built on an absolutely marvelous idea but manages to make only about two-thirds of a good movie of it. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A bit of a one-joke wonder. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Worth seeing for Dafoe's performance alone, a singular mixture of camp and pathos that echoes the tragic, romantic allure of vampires in literature and film. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
It's a marvelous, resonant joke that never quite succeeds: Stretches of the film resemble a Dario Argento horrorfest crossed with a Mel Brooks spoof. But the director, E. Elias Merhige, and his screenwriter, Steven Katz, occasionally bring some rapture to the creepiness, and Dafoe's vampire, with his graceful, ritualistic death lunges, is a sinewy, skull-and-crossbones horror who seems to come less out of the German Expressionist tradition than from Kabuki. Read full review
60
Film.comErnest Hardy
If only this movie were rich enough, strong enough to be worthy of this (Dafoe's) performance. Read full review
60
TNT RoughCutAndy Klein
In the end, the performances and the basic strength of the premise make Shadow of the Vampire a relatively diverting ninety minutes. But there is the inescapable feeling that it is a shadow of the great film it might have been. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
There are times when Dafoe's accent strays into Billy Crystal Yiddish, but the notion of Vlad the Impaler aging into a finicky old Jew has its own kind of piquancy. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderMark Peranson
It's odd that a movie featuring a great classical director is notable for some extremely contemporary acting. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
An academic exercise driven by adolescent ideas that never shape themselves into a narrative: in short, a movie that can never dislodge the art fatally wedged up its butt. Read full review
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