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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Shadow of the Vampire (Dan Jones)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the initial album release with distracting sound
effects if you seek a loyal souvenir from the film or on the 2021
remastering if you prefer an emphasis placed on the dismally dreary
music.
Avoid it... if you expect your vampire scores to exude a convincing sense of romantically gothic tragedy, a trait largely absent from this often inaudible work.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Shadow of the Vampire: (Dan Jones) An obscure, 2000
awards season BBC film produced by Nicholas Cage, Shadow of the
Vampire received a significant publicity blitz to promote the lead
acting performances by John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe. The film's
unique perspective offers viewers the opportunity to watch the
production of the silent 1922 classic Nosferatu in the making,
and it dwells upon the frightfully dark avenues down which the director
went to make it authentic. Strangely, though, this telling fictionalizes
the whole production, suggesting that the actor portraying Count Orlok
was actually a real vampire who killed a number of other cast and crew
members. The concept was intellectually intriguing but realistically
ridiculous, and the make-up and performance of Dafoe persisted as the
movie's Oscar nominations. The score for Shadow of the Vampire
had seemingly become an afterthought, posters for this movie in the
theatres not mentioning the name of a composer or any other music credit
at all. The film put is original music in an awkward position given the
looming shadow of Nosferatu in the subject matter, and the score
was required to accomplish two goals. First, the music needed to reflect
the tinny, melodramatic, string-dominated scores for the films of
Nosferatu's era, and second, the music had to encapsulate that
intangible gothic feeling that any good vampire film would provide in
contemporary times. What British composer Daniel T. Jones, a relative
newcomer to the spotlight, produced is a sort of whimsical combination
of the two, staying a step out of the way of the light, not much unlike
the vampire, and not much unlike the lack of the composer's name on the
movie poster. Despite the hype generated by Dafoe's presence as the
vampire, Shadow of the Vampire was a disappointment to many,
failing to achieve a strong worldwide audience, and the music for the
film also promises more than it ultimately delivers.
Outside of several source-like interruptions, the score for Shadow of the Vampire meanders reflectively in murky depths for its entire length, with only two or three bright spots worthy of specific mention. While the performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is certainly adequate in its accuracy and power, achieving the level of necessary intensity with ease at times, the players' lack of dynamic romantic embrace is a troublesome element that may have been intended by the composer. But it is this absence of genuine fright and awe, even the moments of dark delight, that causes the score for Shadow of the Vampire to float off into an uninteresting cloud of ambiguity. There are a few areas in which Jones excels greatly in Shadow of the Vampire, all technical. His emulation of Eastern European sensibilities in his tone, rhythms, and progressions, is appropriate and unmistakable. His re-creation of the violin performances that accompanied such old horror films is well interpolated into many cues. At the same time, however, he neglects the romantic, gothic, and brooding element of the vampire's demeanor, causing the work to convey only a cold chill without any sense of attachment that such scores otherwise attempt to attain. The lack of tonal accessibility in almost every cue is to be expected; it was a trademark of that specific period of music, and the film's dark story requires a certain amount of egregiously dissonant activity. Without the necessary gothic drive and power, however, the remaining music hovers in the ungrounded treble region without seemingly clear direction. Cues for opulent societal scenes, like the sung "Herr Doktor" and the elegant piano and violin duet in "A Concert in Wismar," are distractions from the otherwise consistent narrative. A couple of waltz pieces sprinkled throughout, which offer, ironically, the most outward character in the score, are likewise necessary but create a fragmented listening experience. In the mass of the brooding underscore, the lack of a recurring thematic identity for either of the two characters leads to several underdeveloped motifs that often wash away into near silence. The lack of engaging narrative arc in the music for Shadow of the Vampire is a pivotal detriment. In fact, there are over ten minutes on this album that are so inaudible that your stereo will need to be turned way up in volume just to hear the strings and woodwinds quiver and flutter, not to mention the subtle effects taken directly from the final cut of the film. Those sound effects and dialogue present another problem with the album presentation. The film has plenty of classic lines of dialogue to be included on the album, including the classic "...I'll eat her later" banter, and yet none of them was chosen for inclusion. Instead, both elements mixed extensively throughout the album are presented at such low volumes and distant clarity that they become a form of percussive accompaniment for the orchestra. For the lengthy passages of very sparse underscore, these mixings are fine in concept despite the fact that their low volume sometimes makes transforms them into distracting whispers. At other points, laughing, applause, or footsteps will suddenly interrupt the music, clipping the end of a cue without warning. The opening of the album, though, is an exception; the combination of a bell tolling, screaming of a woman, footsteps, and frantic voices was a good way to start things off even though they were mixed too softly as well. Overall, the Pacific Time Company album always had many peculiarities. From the dissonant and minimalistic meanderings of the score to the constant intervention of dialogue and sound effects, the album also suffers from an illogical choice of arrangement and slightly incorrect track attribution in the notes. Other tracks seem mislabeled upon a casual listen. The two tracks titled "The Bunker" are identical. A 2021 remastering of the same contents by Wave Theory Records corrects some of these ills by retaining the opening sound effects but better emphasizing Jones' score thereafter. Ultimately, Shadow of the Vampire offers only two truly strong cues worthy of compilation, though. Outside of the marginally engaging crescendos of powerful strings and woodwinds in "The Light of the Sun" and late in "Title Music," there isn't enough interesting and compelling material to pull this awkward experience from the dreary depths of dismal melancholy. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
All Albums:
Total Time: 49:46
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 2001 Pacific Time album includes no extra
information about the score or film. The soloist credits in the
packaging are erroneous by one track a piece. There is no packaging for
the 2021 Wave Theory album.
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2001-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Shadow of the Vampire are Copyright © 2001, 2021, Pacific Time Co., Wave Theory Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/30/01 and last updated 5/27/21. |
