What We Do in the Shadows

What We Do in the Shadows is a fun movie. It’s a movie that’s unlikely to be remembered in twenty years as the state of the genre advances. But, if nothing else, it is fun.

The movie is a vampire comedy. It’s not exactly a biting satire, nor a genius character piece. The basic joke of monsters living in a flat in modern day New Zealand isn’t some great new innovation. Nor is the decision to present it as a mockumentary. Basically, we get The Munsters meets This is Spinal Tap.

This is a movie that doesn’t work on paper, but is somehow made to work by the talent of the people behind it. We have and hour and a half to follow these characters, five vampires a two humans. At times the story does seem a bit stretched, and I get the impression this would likely have worked better as several episodes of a mini-series. However, somehow the actors make it work and drive home every moment they’re on screen.

The movie starts with several vampires living as flatmates. The oldest is Petyr (Ben Fransham), an 8,000-year-old vampire with a Count Orlok look, who mostly keeps to himself and remains quiet. Viago (Taika Watiti) is an 18^th-century dandy who came to New Zealand from Europe pursuing a human woman, who eventually fell in love with someone else. Vladislav (Jermaine Clement) is a former master hypnotist and shape shifter who, while much younger than Petyr, seems to be a bit past his sell-by date, and is uncomfortable about his failing abilities. The youngest of the group, Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), is a former Nazi and a complete slob.

To the extend that the film even has a plot it revolves around Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer). Nick is brought into the house by Deacon’s human “familiar” Jackie (Jackie Van Beek), who mistakes him for a virgin. Running from the upstairs vampires, he accidentally stumbles across Petyr and finds himself turned into a vampire.

Nick’s presence is something of a mixed blessing to the group. On the one hand, Nick is a blithering idiot who proudly announces he’s a vampire to the world (the irony that the others would complain about this, while letting a documentary film crew follow them around, is acknowledged). However, he also brings his human friend Stu (Stu Rutherford) into the house, who introduces the vampires to modern technology, and quickly becomes more popular than Nick himself.

The remaining relevant threads are Jackie’s attempt to persuade Deacon to make her a vampire (it’s implied vampires regularly lie to their familiars to keep them enthralled, when they have no intentions of turning them), the buildup to an annual masquerade of supernatural creatures, and a vampire hunter killing Petyr because of Nick’s stupidity. If these threads feel like they have nothing to do with each other, that’s because they have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The movie mostly functions as a slice-of-life. Most of the plot-points are eventually resolved, but those resolutions usually take mere moments.

Overall, this is a movie worth watching once. I don’t see myself coming back to it, but I laughed at the jokes. They’re not cutting-edge humor, but they were delivered with the wit and energy necessary to make me enjoy them anyway. Honestly, I’d kind of like to see a sequel, just to revisit these characters.