Vampires, Transcended

You’d be doing yourself a disservice if you skipped out on What We Do in the Shadows if you’re skeptical of vampire films or fake documentaries. What We Do in the Shadows is both, but it transcends the tired tropes of mocks and bloodsuckers and turns into an uproarious movie about petty grievances—when those with the grievances happen to be hundreds of years old and survive on human blood.

Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), Viago (Taika Waititi), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), and Petyr (Ben Fransham) are a group of vampires living in a house in Wellington, New Zealand, barely tolerating each other, and waiting for a large gathering of other vampires that takes place each year. Bored one night and looking for fun (and food), the guys turn Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) into a vampire.

But Nick is kind of an idiot and the guys hate him. However, they love Nick’s human friend Stu (Stuart Rutherford), so they don’t kill Nick in order to hang out with Stu, who’s friendly and shows them how to use the Internet (excepting Nick, the vampires are all at least 150 years old).

That ain’t the half of it. There’s also a spurting jugular or two, lots of dirty dishes, bat fights, vampire hunters, werewolves (who, whenever they use bad language, admonish each other by saying “we’re not swearwolves”), and true love. Hilarious. See it.

Directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi

With Clement, Waititi and Brugh

CCA Cinematheque

NR

85 min.