To involve himself fully in his role, Schreck will only appear amongst the cast and crew in makeup, will only be filmed at night, and will never break character.

The landlady becomes distressed at Murnau removing crucifixes around the inn, and the cameraman, Wolfgang Muller, falls into a strange, hypnotic state.

Gustav discovers a bottle of blood amongst the team's food supplies, and someone delivers a caged ferret in the night to a not yet fully revealed Schreck.

One night, Murnau rushes his team to a nearby ancient Slovak castle for the first scene featuring Count Orlok.

The film's producer, Albin Grau, is confused when Murnau tells him that he originally found Schreck in the castle.

While Murnau returns to Berlin to calm financiers of the film, Schreck approaches Grau and the screenwriter, Henrik Galeen, who believe he is still in character.

Schreck points out Dracula's loneliness and the sadness of him trying to remember how to do otherwise mundane chores that he has not needed to perform for centuries.

At dawn, the three attempt to open a metal door and let in sunlight to destroy Schreck but discover that the vampire had cut the chain to the mechanism, trapping them.

The premise of Count Orlok being played by an actual Nosferatu in the eponymous film was recorded by Ado Kyrou, who in his 1953 book Le Surréalisme au Cinéma incorrectly wrote: "The credits name the music hall actor Max Schreck as the vampire's performer, but it is well-known that this information is deliberately untrue.

The site's critical consensus states: "Shadow of the Vampire is frightening, compelling, and funny, and features an excellent performance by Willem Dafoe.

[17] Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, writing that "director E. Elias Merhige and his writer, Steven Katz, do two things at the same time.

They make a vampire movie of their own, and they tell a backstage story about the measures that a director will take to realize his vision", and that Dafoe "embodies the Schreck of Nosferatu so uncannily that when real scenes from the silent classic are slipped into the frame, we don't notice a difference.

"[19] A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "You can find diversion in an improbable blend of behind-the-scenes satire and art-house fright-fest, anchored by Willem Dafoe's creepy, comical and oddly moving performance as the blood-sucking Schreck.