Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

I enjoyed this!  The movie is not perfect, but there is a performance here that is out of control.  Nosferatu was filmed in 1922 by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau with Max Schreck playing Count Orlock.  It is still a great movie, and incredibly creepy and disturbing. 

Shadow of the Vampire takes us to the filming of Nosferatu, with Murnau (played by John Malkovich) assembling his cast on location at the ruined castle. He has kept Schreck a secret, and so all are suitably impressed and disturbed when Schreck appears in his first scene in the role of Nosferatu.  He never breaks character while on set.  Because he's really a vampire.  People start disappearing, and soon the agreement Murnau made with his vampire in the name of science and art has put them all in serious danger.

Willem Dafoe plays Orlock / Nosferatu.  He is amazingly good.  I could not recognize him AT ALL.  But I did recognize Nosferatu.  I have watched that movie many times, and Dafoe nailed the real Schreck's movements, body positioning, stance, gestures, expressions.  It's riveting. 

I would recommend you watch Nosferatu, then turn this one on.  What fun.