At some point, most people have begged the question, “What’s with all of this vampire entertainment?” I mean, surely not _every_ vampire leads a life like Edward Cullen, Dracula or Count Chocula. What about your average Vlad? If you ever wondered this, or do now, look no further than “What We Do in the Shadows.”
From the goofballs that brought you Flight of the Conchords comes this ridiculous mockumentary (a film that presents fictional events as fact in the style of a documentary for the sake of parody) that chronicles the daily life of four drastically different vampires living in a flat in New Zealand. Vladislav is from medieval times and enjoys the art of torture, Viago is a gentleman from Victorian England and Deacon flaunts being the youngest of the group, while Petyr has 8,000 years under his belt, fiercely resembles Nosferatu and has relinquished all linguistic ability in exchange for hissing.
By “daily life,” I mean just that. They struggle with getting into nightclubs (since they have to be invited in), deciding who does which flat chores (apparently apathy grows exponentially over hundreds of years), finding love (living forever complicates things), not knowing what they look like (vampires don’t show up in mirrors), tension with werewolves (who are trying really hard to work on their language problem), vampire hunters, figuring out how to use technology and a new vampire who doesn’t know the unspoken rules of the lifestyle quite yet. All of this is infused with a ridiculous amount of absolutely hilarious deadpan humor.
It is amazing just how funny this movie manages to be, considering that it really is a one-joke movie: They’re your everyday vampires. However, the cast manages to explore this idea in pretty much every way imaginable, and then some. Potentially, the most impressive part of this movie is that they improvised almost the entirety of the footage, which added a level of respectable ingenuity to the film.
The production value is low, the plot is thin, the cinematography is mediocre and it’s ultimately pointless (unless you consider “being a vampire isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be” a point, which I don’t), but the humor more than makes up for what “What We Do in the Shadows” lacks in cinematic merit.
As we were leaving the theater, almost everyone had a smile on their face, discussing this scene or that, reminiscing about the laughs they’d just shared. It’s been two days, and I’m still snickering about when Deacon pretends to throw a stick in a standoff with some werewolves and one of them chases it. The chances are that at least a few of the scenes will tickle your funny bone, and if you’re anything like me, most of them will.
As it turns out, most vampires aren’t creepy lover boys, especially cruel members of a royal family or on a cereal box, but rather just regular dudes with slightly different everyday issues than you or me. They’re dead, sure, but delightful.
**Pass the Popcorn if:** You’ve always wondered what vampires do in their downtime. You want to see the funniest film of 2015 (so far). You’d like to see a twist on the tired “vampires versus werewolves” trope. You hate “Twilight.”
**Pass it up if:** You only like slapstick comedies. You can’t stand the sight of blood. You’re not very good at interpreting accents. You think the idea would make for a better SNL skit than a feature length movie.
