Five Things We Learned From ‘What We Do In The Shadows’

A mockumentary about vampires sharing a house in contemporary Wellington? What We Do in the Shadows seems to broadcasts its laughs – and limits – right from that premise, but the movie is even funnier than it looks, and in surprising ways. It’s been called a Spinal Tap for vampires, which just about nails it, but there’s a whole lot of humour (and heart) that has nothing to do with vamps.

Here’s what we learned from watching it.

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1. It’s a Flight of the Conchords reunion – almost

What We Do in the Shadows is a writing, directing and acting collaboration between Jermaine Clement – yes, Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords – and Taika Waititi, who directed four episodes (and wrote two) of the cult Kiwis-in-New-York comedy series. Rhys Darby, who stole every Conchords scene available playing an inept band manager, even appears as the peace-keeping alpha male leading a pack of werewolves. Clement also starred in Waititi’s feature film debut, the winsome 2007 quirkfest Eagle vs Shark. Beyond their co-writing and co-directing, Shadows gives us the full deadpan power of both guys as actors: there’s nothing too ridiculous for them to downplay and make twice as funny.

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2. It gets impressive mileage out of old vampire tropes

Movies have been spoofing vampires for decades, from Roman Polanski’s 1967 gem The Fearless Vampire Killers to the 2010 bomb Vampires Suck, but Shadows gets a surprising amount of laughs from well-established vampire tropes. In fact, after a fake ’70s-style seal from the NZ Documentary Board, the movie opens with an alarm clock ringing outside a coffin. From there comes a flood of jokes playing up to vampire iconography, from silver and crucifixes to invitations and familiars. But when Clement’s character proudly recalls his sadistic past as “Vlad the Poker” (a play on the historical Dracula model “Vlad the Impaler”), it’s the first of many hilarious tweaks to vampire lore. Ditto the thrills of beholding a “batfight” (rather than catfight) between two vampires, and one character violently puking blood after trying to eat his former favourite food, chips.

Arguably the funniest character is Petyr (Ben Fransham), a 9,000-year-old vampire in the style of the 1922 film classic Nosferatu, while passing references to Lost Boys and Twilight highlight the characters’ struggle to show a documentary film crew how “real vampires” act. Throw in a perfect sight gag nodding to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 adaptation of Dracula, and there’s seemingly an infinite supply of jokes to be made here – including a lot of physical comedy, dodgy accents and one very messy scene involving the main artery.

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3. It’s laugh-out-loud funny

Seeing the movie at a public screening, the sold-out crowd was in hysterics pretty much the entire time. And rightly so: Shadows mixes up obvious and subtle humour while keeping everything deadpan yet constantly moving. Think Arrested Development awkwardness with a smattering of Wes Anderson quirk. Even the movie’s seemingly throwaway jokes resurface later for unexpected impact, like Vlad’s inability to change his face when shape-shifting into animals.

Despite its mockumentary and horror-comedy trappings, at heart this is about a dysfunctional family learning to live together. That includes overcoming massive generation gaps to have the youngest vampire introduce his housemates to things like YouTube, Facebook (where “poking” is again an option for Vlad) and scratching records on a wind-up Victrola. When the newest vampire struggles to tell his best friend about his rather drastic lifestyle change, there are also ready parallels to coming out. But make no mistake: it’s excruciatingly funny at every turn. Just wait for Vlad’s metaphor comparing virgins to a sandwich.

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4. Having housemates is pretty ridiculous in itself

As goofy as it is to be a vampire in modern-day New Zealand – taking the bus to “Wellington Central” for a night out at the clubs – Shadows also leans on the mundane comedy inherent to “flatting” life. Cue the chores wheel, which hasn’t kept dishes from piling up for five years straight, and the vampires tucking into favoured personal hobbies like knitting and pottery. Without the benefit of mirrors, they have to give each other extra fashion advice, and three of them find time to jam in a makeshift band featuring bugle, upright bass and lute. The mockumentary approach also teases out the familiar workings of reality TV, as the housemates complain to the film crew about each other’s nagging flaws.

 

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5. For a comedy, it’s got some actual scares

Sure, it’s a comedy, but there are surprisingly good sets and effects – and some actual scares. Take, for instance, a full-moon werewolf encounter. Or the dinner party arranged to provide victims for the vampires. It helps that there’s a regular human, the mild-mannered Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), in the mix to keep the stakes high in that respect: everyone wants to eat him, including his friends. In fact, in a movie defined by its deadpan stars, Gonzalez-Macuer out-deadpans everyone. He’s such a straight man that he becomes the funniest thing here.

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What We Do In The Shadows opens in theatres Thursday.