Edmund Elias Merhige, known as E. Elias Merhige, (born June 14th, 1964) is an American film director born in Brooklyn.
Merhige is best known to mainstream audiences for the 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire, and to underground audiences for the cult-classic 1991 film Begotten.
As he says in his audio commentary to the Shadow of the Vampire DVD, Merhige views cinema as the only meaningful art form of the present era. He regards literature and drama as once-needed forms which are past their time and which have been superseded by film. He is also very interested in the occult and the paranormal, and images and themes derived from these traditions suffuse his films.
Merhige currently lives in Los Angeles, California. —Wikipedia
Murnau is one of my favorite directors, and Nosferatu one of my favorite films. Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire is both a loving tribute to Murnau's classic and a great film in its own right. The film turns between comedy and terror, but never falls into the realm of camp or parody. Merhige asks us to take his work seriously and we are able to do so. And the performances! Max Schreck is loveable and terrifying!
An outstanding concept that isn’t executed quite right. Out of the countless vampire themed films to emerge this past decade, this is one of the more original. Mehrige does a commendable job of maintaining… read review