1119. What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

Starring: Jemaine Clement, Taika Watiti, Jonny Brugh

Director: Jemaine Clement, Taika Watiti

Running Time: 86 mins

What We Do In The Shadows is a New Zealand mockumentary about a trio of vampires living in a flat-share in the outskirts of Wellington, and their day-to-day exploits including their various quarrels and going out on the town at night.

If anything good came out of the whole Twilight vampire fad thing, then this is it. An ingeniously hilarious and original take on the vampire genre, What We Do In The Shadows is a consistently funny and interesting movie, and a mockumentary that actually stands up against classics of the genre like This Is Spinal Tap.

The best thing about this film by a mile is its sense of humour. It has an excellent balance between a simple vampire parody, mockumentary humour, and slapstick comedy, providing great laughs right the way through, and even if you’re not any sort of vampire/horror fan, this is still a hugely funny film to watch.

What’s integral in making the film so funny to watch, as well as the humour, is the characters, which are brilliant here. The main vampires are all ingenious crosses between everyday human dunderheads and stereotypical Draculas, and are as such a lot of fun to see on screen, coping with the modern world in their special way.

Also, the film focusses a lot on the whole supernatural community of the Greater Wellington area, and gives you a hilarious insight into the worlds of werewolves, zombies, demons and all sorts, but presenting them just like normal people, adding to the brilliant insanity of it all.

This is also a very well-shot film. Instead of spending too much time on face-to-face interviews like other mockumentaries such as TV’s The Office does, most of the film is simply just watching these guys go about their lives, with the odd voiceover from an interview thrown in over the top. As such, that makes a much easier and more pleasant film to watch, and prevents any awkward jarring in the story.

In contrast to that, however, the only negative in this film does come from its plot. Seeing as it’s basically the adventures of these vampire guys, it’s often quite meandering and, in some of the less funny parts, occasionally a little too easy to lose interest, however that fortunately doesn’t happen too often thanks to the excellent humour, so that’s why What We Do In The Shadows gets a 7.5 from me.