Shadow of the Vampire

“An unspeakable horror. A creative genius. Captured for eternity.”

F. W. Murnau (John Malkovich) is making *Nosferatu* in 1922 and will do anything to get it right, including casting Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe), a strange actor who stays in character and refuses to be seen out of makeup. Merhige borrows the iris lenses and intertitles of the silent films he is imitating. The crew starts to suspect their lead, and Murnau has bargained away more than he has told them.