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I grew up loving monsters and monster movies. At the library in my town there were a set of books all about the making of the classic Universal Monster films. Dracula, The Creature, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, they were all there, along with many others. I spent hours reading the stories of how these movies were made and I spent just as many hours looking at the photos of the amazing makeup and special effects. I thought I’d never get tired of monsters. Fast forward to the 2015 and I find myself incredibly over monster movies. We’ve been assaulted with an onslaught of terribly mediocre monster/creature films over the last 15 years and they keep coming. You can’t throw a rock with out hitting a zombie film or TV show, and except for some notable exceptions(28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland) most have been duds. The idea has been done to death, as is the case with most other monster franchises. Vampire movies have been done to death as well, and while there are so many classics(Nosferatu, Dracula, Fright Night, The Lost Boys to name a few) they too have been overplayed. A certain sparkly bloodsucker and his brooding brood ruined Vampires AND Werewolves for many(along with the underwhelming Underworld franchise). I told myself I never wanted to see another Zombie, Vampire or Werewolf for a long while and was happily content in that until I saw the info on “What We Do In The Shadows”. The first that I saw of the film was that the makers, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi (of Eagle vs Shark fame) were looking to get US distribution of the film through crowd sourcing. There wasn’t a way to see the film in the US for a long while and I forgot about it. My parents went to see it in a bigger metropolitan area and raved about it. It wasn’t available in my town and so I waited yet again. Recently the film made it to Redbox and I was, at last, able to watch it.

I really do love Vampire stories, thats why it’s so troubling that they’ve been overdone. The stories, or rather the Dracula story feed on some of the deepest fears of humankind, but also on some of the deepest desires. Immortality, pain, death, fear, and a rather blatant dose of sexuality are some of the themes that Bram Stoker played with when he first wrote the Dracula myth down on paper. Recent Vampire films have neglected most of these themes or dealt with them in such juvenile ways that they cease to really be relevant. “What We Do In The Shadows” is by no means a serious film, and a good deal of the humor is juvenile, but not in the same was as the Twilight franchise. The mundane and humorous aspects of life are the focal point of this film and they’re dealt with honestly and hilariously. We’ve loved watching how folks of different strokes would live together, since the Real World debuted in the 90’s. Vampire personality has never been a focal point of most vampire films, especially of the last 15 years. Most films are content to give us a very 2 dimensional characters in order to focus on special effects. They’re more concerned with vampires performing slow motion action sequences and being really gothy. Blade and Underworld are especially guilty in these aspects. These movies, while somewhat fun to watch, really find themselves in the 90’s Cyber Punk genre than the Vampire genre, in my opinion. Vampires much like Zombies are for the most part a monolithic evil entity. “What about Edward?” you say “Edward was a fully formed character, full of emotional depth and feeling.”  I’ve had zits with more emotion and personality than Edward Cullen.

The plot of WWDITS is simple.  A film crew is following around a house full of vampires as they live life and prepare for the annual undead ball, held in Wellington.  These 4 vampires Viago, Vladislav, Deacon and Petyr, all from 4 different eras in time, have to navigate life with room mates just like everyone else.  Most folks in the world have had a “discussion” a room mate or spouse about undone dishes, though hopefully in the real world the dishes are less blood soaked.  The roomies must navigate friendships with humans, relationships with women and dealing with werewolves.   Dressing yourself without a mirror and getting yourself invited into a bar are just a few of the setbacks these night stalkers face as they attempt to paint the town red.

I know it sounds strange, but I use laughter as a litmus test for the quality of a comedy.  Novel approach huh?  I laughed a lot at this film.   There are definitely some broad comedic gags ala a Farrelly Brothers movie, but most of the humor is in the vein of a Christopher Guest mockumentary.  The make up and special effects are great, I found myself laughing hysterically at one of the more gruesome scenes, but the gore is secondary to the awkwardness and comedy of the scene.  Most of the cast will be unknown to American audiences  save for Rhys Darby who played band manager Murray on “Flight of the Conchords”.  Darby’s role as the head Werewolf is one of the funniest in the film, and word on the street is that a sequel focusing on the Wolves is in the works.

I’ve written a lot of words, really just to tell you that I loved this film.  It’s funny, self aware(the Count Orlock vampire Petyr, locked in the basement is a great critique of the modern vampire film obscuring the classic interpretations), sometimes actually quite scary, and wonderfully sweet.   The Vampires in this film may suck, but the film itself…definitely not.

Reviewed by: Andrew Staff on August 31, 2015