It's day 285 of my One Movie A Day project, and that means, we're Day 12 of both my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en project as well as the 31 Days of Horror Challenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street. Plus, can not forget the 100HorrorMoviesIn92Days challenge I joined this year.
As always, this is where I tell you that the last decade I have been doing a 13 Days of Hallowe'en project that normally runs from the 19th-31st of October, that I would usually post on my old social medias, that consisted of movie reviews, recipes and comedy skits. And that this year, I decided to just keep it simple and just do the movie challenges on this site and my Letterboxd.
My mini challenge today is Vampires. Yes, this is vampire week.
The mini challenge for the 31 Day Horror challenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street is Movie in a Movie. I decided to once again, combine the two and picked Shadow of the Vampire.
The movie follows the director and crew as they made the movie Nosferatu. Only, no one on set is aware that the actor playing the vampire lead, is actually a real vampire. As one by one the crew begin to die, there's nothing to be done but to keep filming.
This movie is a masterpiece for so many reasons. One, it's a loose remake of the 1922 film Nosferatu, Two, it's a bit of a satire on the whole vampire obsession, Three, it's a beautifully shot piece of art. It shows the movie as a metaphor about vampirism, while being a movie about vampires. It's tongue in cheek at times without feeling like it's hitting you over the head.
Add to that, it's a movie about how obsessive we can get with movie stars and the movie business. How our own art can be our downfall.
There is a scene where the character of the vampire, is getting drunk and talking about how he became a vampire at the dawn of civilization. Saying it was a woman who turned him. It's this glorious foreshadowing of the end of the movie, because we learn the vampire's biggest weakness is that at the core of it, he's just a man. There's this soft unexpected vulnerability to this brutal animalistic mind.
I'll have a progress update on the 100HorrorMoviesIn92Days post for you soon.
Come back tomorrow to see what other tricks and treats I have for you.
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