Edmund Elias Merhige (born June 14, 1964) is an American film director best known to mainstream audiences for the black comedy horror film "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000), and to underground audiences for the surrealist horror cult classic "Begotten" (1989). 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 He regards literature and drama as once-needed forms which are past their time and which have been superseded by film.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. Born in Brooklyn, Merhige currently lives in Los Angeles, California.