Shadow of the Vampire is a 2000 humorous metafiction horror film directed by E. Elias Merhige and written by Steven Katz, and starring John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe. The film is an imaginary account of the making of the classic vampire film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, directed by F. W. Murnau, in which the film crew begin to have disturbing suspicions about their lead actor. The film borrows the techniques of silent films, including the use of intertitles to explain elided action and iris lenses.