Movie Review: What We Do In The Shadows (2014)
Done well, the mockumentary is a very funny style of film, revelling in the mundane of interesting or outlandish characters (think Spinal Tap, Man Bites Dog). Done poorly, it comes off as cheap and by the numbers. Luckily What We Do in the Shadows is firmly of the former and in the process creates one of the funnier comedy/horror films.
The film centres around a documentary film crew who has been invited to observe and follow Viago (Taika Waititi), Deacon (Jonathon Brugh), Vladislav (Jermaine Clement), and their other friend that lives in the basement, Petyr (Ben Fransham). Four vampires that share a flat in Wellington, New Zealand. The film follows them as they go about their lives.
The three main performances are all great: Waititi, Brigh and Clement all have great fun playing their characters and it shows as it comes across watching it, which I think only enhances the joy of watching them. When a mishap with dinner occurs and Nick (a great turn by Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) gets sired by Petyr, the three centuries old vampires now have to start dealing with a new vampire that doesn’t follow their rules.
The details in the mundane keep the film bubbling along in the early stages, from arguments about household chores, mixed with each of the vampires having one on one interviews with the documentary crew, adding some very funny one liners to the film (there is a line about a sandwich that had the entire cinema in stitches). However, beyond this, the film meanders a little bit. So, when you get over the amusing premise and introduction to the characters, the film needed a few more set pieces, as the few set pieces they had were laugh out loud moments. Like Viago making a mess of his dinner and Nic, despite warnings from all three vampires, eats a chip and the results from it is a great riff on the dinner scene in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. There needed to be more of those moments in the second half to keep pace with the first half of the film.
The effects are quite good and certainly better than I would have assumed and make the dark comedy gags payoff. It really adds to the experience since it is all there on the screen, presented as matter of fact. In a country that has a low-budget horror tradition courtesy of Peter Jackson, What We Do in the Shadows can proudly take its place alongside those films. Light in the horror department, but heavy on the laughs, WWDITS is a film you should see.
Ryan Morrissey-Smith
Article first published at Haddonfieldhorror.com