Review: What We Do in the Shadows
This is the story of four vampires, living in a house in Wellington, who have agreed to have their lives taped. Find out what happens when vampires stop being polite, and start getting real. What We Do in the Shadows is an occasionally funny mockumentary written and directed by Eagle vs Shark's Taika Waititi and Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement.
The opening title cards tell of a secret society in New Zealand who gather every few years for The Unholy Masquerade. The New Zealand Documentary Board have decided to follow a quartet of living undeads in the months leading up to the ball. There's bloodsucking dandy Viago (Waititi), aged 379, a fussy sort who chastises his housemates for not doing their share of household duties, and lays down newspaper pages to catch the blood that's about to be spilled by his latest victim. Vladislav (Clement), aged 862, is a pervert, hypnotiser, torturer, and shapeshifter. Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) is the baby of the bunch at 183 years old and a former member of Hitler's Vampire Army. Best of all is 8,000-year-old Nosferatu look-alike Petyr (Ben Fransham), who doesn't even bother with social niceties.
The camera crew follows the vamps through flatmate meetings and nights out on the town, where getting into nightclubs is a tricky affair since they can only enter if they're invited in. A dinner party with unwitting guests procured by Deacon's human servant Jackie (Jackie Van Beek) ends up with one of the guests, twentysomething Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), being turned by Petyr. Not a big deal, par for the course, except Nick keeps bragging about being "the main guy from Twilight" to anyone within earshot. Deacon isn't particularly fond of Nick, who soon becomes jealous when his best mate Stu (Stuart Rutherford) is instantly welcomed by the bloodsuckers.
Clement and Waititi throw werewolves and zombies into the mix and do fire off some successful gags, but the film's premise is too slight to sustain over the course of 87 increasingly interminable minutes.
What We Do in the Shadows
Directed by: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi
Written by: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi
Starring: Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jonathan Brugh, Ben Fransham, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stuart Rutherford, Jackie Van Beek
