What We Do In The Shadows

Second

Vampire films have been crying out for a spoof movie and WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, directed by Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi (director of Boy and Eagle vs Shark) has all the makings of a cult comedy classic.

The mockumentary follows the adventures of four flatmates in a ramshackle shabby house in Wellington: the relatively youthful Viago (Waititi), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), Vladislav (Clement) who clock in at a mere several hundred years apiece each and the positively ancient 8000-year-old veteran Petyr (Ben Fransham).

Clement and Waititi base their film on the premise of “What if vampires were just like us?” Or, more specifically, just like any group of young people in a communal living environment.

The topics may be obvious – sorting out the cleaning roster (cleaning being an especially gruesome task in a vampire household), our essentially medieval chums grappling with social media etc – but in the hands of Clement and Waititi they are hilarious. Even in the media screening attended by the usual handful of reviewers, one person could not stop laughing right from the get go.

There’s just the right amount of gore and gross-out to appeal to a younger audience and to remind audiences that yes, vampires really do kill people. The directors squeeze the most out of their chosen mockumentary format by lampooning coming-out of the closet docos and reality police shows.

Clocking in at just under 90 minutes, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS does not outstay its welcome and is perfectly structured, its mix of set pieces livened up with a string of new mates and/or victims and run-ins with the vampires’ arch rivals, the werewolves.

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS is The Young Ones meets The Munsters and a welcome comedic addition to our vampire-obsessed times. The film opens in cinemas September 4.