REVIEW: What We Do in the Shadows

If there's one thing I'm sick of, it's modern vampire movies. Not to reach for the extremely low-hanging fruit, but I feel the concept has lost its teeth in recent years, shifting more onto the "tragically sympathetic romance novel protagonist" side of things. Like with zombies, it seems that vampires have become a bit too popular for their own good as of late; everything has become sort of homogenized and bland aside from the real standout examples of originality. As the zombie movie has Shaun of the Dead, so too does the vampire flick have What We Do in the Shadows.

Taking the form of a documentary, the film follows the afterlives of a group of vampires living together in a New Zealand flat; Viago (Taika Waititi), Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), Deacon (Johnny Brugh), and Petyr (Ben Fransham). Together they stalk the Wellington night life scene in search of fresh victims. Despite the many perks to being an undead prowler of the night, the group also has to deal with the various trials and tribulations that come with a group of guys sharing a flat; getting the chores done, keeping blood off the furniture, and dealing with the constant threat of sunlight and vampire hunters. They also must deal with the addition of Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), a would-be meal who ends up joining the ranks of the predeceased. It's a concept that is positively brilliant in its simplicity; the myth of the vampire has grown and changed over the ages, providing no shortage of jumping off points for hilarious scenarios. They're typically portrayed as such brooding, dramatic creatures that it's just funny to see them having to wash the dishes or asking to be invited inside of a bar. It's a very simple form of humor that works out perfectly thanks to the performances of the main cast. There's an abundance of improvisation at play here and the film is all the better for it. It gives everything a raw, organic feeling that just makes things so much funnier as a whole; it's one thing to write a scripted scenario where vampires get into a drunken altercation with some werewolves, but a whole other thing to give that scenario to some really hilarious actors and tell them to just go with it. 

The special effects on display here are all very minimalist, but I feel as though that works to great effect with the humor. Something about actors being tugged around on wires to give the illusion that they're floating will always be amusing; that said, there's also some shots that really get creative and work surprisingly well within the extremely low budget (for example, a fistfight that was shot with the use of a rotating hallway set). The most important thing, however, is that it all looks consistent. When it comes to low-budget movies like this, it's not uncommon for the filmmakers to overstep their bounds with the special effects, attempting to show the audience too much. Fortunately, this film never runs into such an issue; it would have been very easy to take a concept like "vampires sharing a house" and shoehorn in some big, flashy, immersion-breaking effects shot that the production couldn't really afford (see Knights of Badassdom). Through some nifty camera tricks and clever techniques, the film avoids anything that takes the viewer out of the experience; it knows exactly what it's got to work with and it uses it well.

Horror-comedy is a tricky genre to nail down; in anything that's a comedy hybrid, it's safe to assume that there will be some form of satire or parody involved. Satire and parody are not exactly the simplest forms of humor to get right, requiring certain degrees of cleverness and subtlety. Some films grasp this quite well (Shaun of the Dead, Tucker and Dale VS Evil) while other films do not (Scary Movie V); thankfully, What We Do in the Shadows is by far the former. It's a hilarious flick that I already can't wait to watch again; definitely don't pass this one up.