Horror-tober 14: What We Do in the Shadows

I have wanted to see this one for awhile. Even though there have been some pretty bad vampire movies and shows (I won't name names) I am still a big fan of the creatures.

What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary style comedy about vampires living in New Zealand. Four vampires live together, each of a different era of vampire (mostly related to film and folklore). Petyr is the vampyr-style of vampire familiar from the classic Nosferatu and the oldest of the four. Valdislav is the Hungarian, Vlad the Impaler, style vampire, but he is Valdistav the Poker. Viago is kind of the Anne Rice, pretty and lovelorn, vampire. And the youngest, Deacon, is the bad boy, the modern vampire akin to The Lost Boys (he even references it!) although much older than those bad boys. But like any household where four dudes reside together and share the rent and chores, they have their spats over who was supposed to do the dishes that week and food. Well, except that their food happens to be living human beings they pick up in the nightclubs in Wellington and as classic vampires they have a preference for virgins. All of them stuck in the past but when one of their meals, Nick, becomes a fellow vampire they learn to adapt to the modern world. Even "poking" people on Facebook, of which Vladislav seems particularly excited about. Of course, the "fresh blood," also brings lots of trouble to the vampire household.

The boys all together

I liked this film not only because of the fun it plays with the vampire subgenre of horror, but it was genuinely funny. I really love Jemaine Clement (Vladislav), I even liked him as the bad guy in the third installment of the MIB franchise even though the whole movie was pretty crappy. He has such a great, sort of dry humor that is also pretty clever. So no surprise that he and fellow kiwi, Taika Waititi (Viago), were the brains behind this movie. I was also happy to see Rhys Darby (Murray in Flight of the Conchords) to pop-up in this movie as the alpha werewolf. I didn't give this one a better rating though, just because it overplayed some of its jokes and *SPOILER* they killed off Petyr. He was the best, probably because he didn't say a word but it was just so perfectly played! After seeing it I did learn that it was based on a short film that Waititi and Clement originally made, so I will have to check that out sometime and see how it ties into this film. Overall, it still gets a pretty high rating of 3.5 skulls because I just enjoyed how subtly funny it was and the nostalgia of when I liked vampire movies.  

My rating:

Joey's rating: