“Go ahead! Eat the writer! That will leave you explaining how your character gets to Bremen!”

And here you were thinking we were done with vampires for a while. NOT A CHANCE! 2000 brought Shadow of the Vampire an interesting mock-biopic (Bio-mock? Mockuography?) of F.W. Murnau and the making of Nosferatu, where the conceit is that Max Schreck’s performance was so convincing because he actually was a vampire, and was feeding on the cast and crew through the production of the movie. Strange premise? Sure. Interesting result? You betcha.

Plot
After an atmospheric, Art Nouveau-style opening credits that feel like they drag on for ten minutes, we get to that swingin’ hotbed of zany lasciviousness of the early 1920s; Germany. Well, the film scene was lascivious at least. There, big shot auteur F.W. Murnau assembles his cast & crew to film an adaptation of Dracula, except that they haven’t secured the rights, so they’ve got to change the name for legal protection. Murnau then takes his crew to Eastern Europe for location scenes and finally introduces them to the star of the picture, “method actor” Max Shreck, who is going to remain in-character for the duration of the shoot. This will be easy, since he really is a vampire. Things go well at first, but, well, vampire on the set means people start getting eaten. What follows is an interesting mix of period drama, hilarity, pathos, and a disturbing look at just how far someone is willing to go to capture art on film.

Characters
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau: John Malkovich plays F.W. Murnau as a dictatorial, ego-driven director whose concern with capturing “art” on film supersedes the well-being of his fellow human beings on his crew. At first this gets played for dark laughs as we see his complete disregard for what the vampire is doing to some of his crew, but his obsessions (and drug use) deteriorate the world around him and leads the movie into some pretty disturbing territory by the end.

Albin Grau: Udo Kier plays the producer of the film, the guy paying for the project and ostensibly in charge, but he ends up being second fiddle to Murnau’s vision.

Greta Shroeder: Catherine McCormack plays the diva-like actress who is Murnau’s star. A temperamental party girl with a drug problem, Murnau uses her as an unwitting bargaining chip to keep Shreck from flipping out and murdering everyone.

Fritz Wagner: Cary Elwes plays a cameraman who comes on to replace camera man Wolfgang Mueller (Ronan Vibert) after the latter turned into a vampire’s sippy cup. Fritz is a boozing, partying, womanizing pilot who storms onto the set and is basically awesome, but he’s a late addition to the filming of Nosferatu and doesn’t really do a whole lot.

Gustav von Wangenheim: Eddie Izzard plays the lead actor of Nosferatu, and while he doesn’t really get a whole lot of development, he does show up in a lot of the “Movie-within-a-movie” stuff where shots from the silent film are recreated. For what it is, Izzard gives a great performance, and his reaction to Shreck’s first appearance is priceless.

Max Shreck: Willem Dafoe as an ancient vampire-playing-a-method-actor-playing-a-vampire is the reason to watch this. The makeup work is excellent and makes it difficult to recognize Dafoe’s face, and he turns in an incredibly nuanced performance as he shifts between a pathetic old geezer of a vampire to a murderous monster that preys on the helpless, and he makes both believable. Some of the greatest moments in the film are where he is just talking, like when he’s telling the producer and scriptwriter his reaction to reading Dracula. An incredibly badass performance.

Visuals/Effects
E. Elias Merhige goes for a very moody and shadowy look for the period at most times, which is appropriate, this being a horror movie, more or less. However, where the movie is probably at its best is when its recreating shots from the original Nosferatu. Those are filmed in that same kind of grainy black and white and blend a self-aware hilarity as well as respectful homage to the silent film genre.

Writing
The script by Steven Katz is one hell of an interesting story. Now, this is about as far removed from biography as you can get (Shreck wasn’t a vampire and most of the crew didn’t die during the production), but that’s not the point. It’s a really interesting character drama that by the end of the film asks you who the real soulless monster is, the decrepit vampire or the director that brought him in.

Sound
The score by Dan Jones is appropriately moody and fit’s the period. It blends well into the picture as a whole.

Conclusion
Shadow of the Vampire is an unusual film that probably isn’t for everybody because in the end, its not really a comedy or a horror movie in broad terms. It’s a character drama that, like most films about making films, is ultimately about the human reasons for and the cost of pursuing an artistic vision. At times it probably does get a little too clever for its own good, but ultimately it’s a fascinating, original picture with a good indie film vibe to it, and worth checking out.

“I promised I wouldn't go *buy* a Ouija board. I borrowed one”

So, the big story this month was a low budget indie film made on a shoestring budget scaring the crap out of audiences and spreading a word-of-mouth viral campaign as to its genuine creepiness. Well, the movie was finished in 2007 but only released now, and delivers exactly what it says it would: Paranormal Activity.

Plot
Its 2006 and a young couple move into a modest modern apartment and begin experiencing…things. The boyfriend buys an expensive and fancy camera in the hopes of catching on film some of this paranormal activity (dun dun DUN!). The movie proceeds down a very creepy road as for the next 86 minutes of increasing dread, the couple get much more than they bargained for.

Characters
Micah: Micah Sloat plays our day trading “dude guy dude” type of guy. He’s a bit of a self absorbed douche who is perpetually antagonizing the…thing in the house to try and get good footage. Naturally, the entity obliges, but as a result, Micah fails at that most important element of relationships: two-way communication. He just doesn’t ever frickin’ listen to his girlfriend’s increasingly desperate pleas to knock it off with the camera and leave the…thing alone. On the other hand, if he wasn’t this stupid, we’d have no movie.

Katie: Katie Featherston plays the increasingly worried English Major girlfriend of Micah. Much more sympathetic than the dense Micah, it turns out that Katie’s been haunted by this thing for most of her life. She gets increasingly desperate to keep the…thing quiet as the activity grows increasingly hostile to them. She’s also a flawed character, being rather codependent on Micah’s approval of her decisions, which only helps to propel the tragedy builds up.

The Psychic: Mark Fredrichs is barely in the film as a psychic and ghost expert called in by Katie to help figure out what’s going on. He tells them that whatever’s in the house is not a ghost, gives them the number of a demonologist and proceeds to get out of dodge. It’s a major turning point in the film, though sadly the demonologist becomes a Godot-like character.

The Entity: The badass of the film exists as a creature made up entirely of sound effects, camera tricks and the occasional set of footprints. Clearly identified as a demon early on, the entity is much smarter than the two mortals and a real asshole who at times torments them just because it can.

The Camera: Yes, the camera is more or less a third main character. Its our eyes and ears into this disturbing suburban occurrence, and one that draws the audience in as a mute and helpless fly on the wall.

Visuals/Effects
First time director Oren Peli really gets his mileage out of a minimal budget. The movie is tightly paced for the most part and the limitations of practical effects really forces the said paranormal activity (dun, dun, DUN!) to be rooted in stuff that is physically plausible. And its freaky as hell at maximizing a mounting sense of dread when the lights get turned off every night and the camera gets locked off onto a tripod. Also, the whole “handheld” feature is actually done well, since shots and frames are generally well done and a lot of the legitimate scares are done when the camera is locked off on a tripod. So, uh, bravo for not falling into the “its shaky so it must be SPOOOOOOOOOKY!!!” mentality.

Writing
Written by Oren Peli, the story is fairly straightforward, but effective since there is very little fat that weighs down the narrative. Dialog is serviceable and the people all speak like normal people (I wonder how much of it was improvised), but that’s also a negative feature. Most real conversations are generally boring and forgetful as they frequently are here.

Sound
The lack of a score really adds to the creepiness of the film. Also, mad props to the sound effects guys for making footsteps that bring dread with every heavy tread.

Conclusion
Paranormal Activity is a svelte and incredibly effective indie horror film. The grassroots word-of-mouth campaign that’s sprung up around it is quite impressive as well, but more so is the fact that the movie actually does deliver a chilling tale that is dollar for dollar infinitely more effective at using its budget to create legitimate scares more than most of the big budget, jump-cutting, glossy finished studio fare that you’re likely to see. And it is legitimately very scary. Its also still in theaters as of this posting, so its definitely recommended viewing, especially since going to see this instead of Saw VI would be a very RMWC approved way of supporting the little guy filmmakers as opposed to the franchise machines that crank out nothing but generic torture porn with increasingly ridiculous continuity snarls to ham fistedly tie together previous movies into a false continuity.

That’s right. It’s a RMWC Call To Arms to take back Halloween from Saw and give it back to the movies that legitimately celebrate the season! Sure, Saw VI opened up at number two to Paranormal which was in its third week (second of wide release) so let's keep up that momentum.