What We Do In The Shadows | Film Review

If there are two genres of which audiences have reached the cliff of exhaustion, it is found-footage and mockumentary-style filmmaking. These last few years have been a cesspool overrunning with films made on the cheap in this vein, diluting the genre to the point where the mere mention of the style immediately creates a gut reaction I like to call ‘The Theater Wince’. Add in vampires as the subject and you have an audience revulsion strong enough to finally break California away from the coastal US. We have exhausted these options; we as a collective have moved on.

Then a film like “What We Do in the Shadows” comes along to prove every single one of us wrong.

“Shadows” follows the lives of three single guys just trying to get by…as vampires. We follow a camera crew who have been given unrestricted access, as well as copious amounts of garlic, to document the real, everyday lives of this fun-loving trio of bloodsucking roommates. It may feature the darkest of stereotypes and random bloodlettings, but this is a film played strictly for laughs. Think Modern Family if Dracula moved into a nearby cul-de-sac.

Viago (Taika Waititi) serves as our guide through this haunted house of insanity, and the stroke of genius in his character is that he plays everything completely straight, almost as if he sometimes forgets vampires are evil. Viago may drink blood for sport or necessity (though quite poorly it turns out), but all he really wants is to be seen as a person. Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), meanwhile, serves as the young and hip vampire, more interested in the look and suave history of vampirism than actually becoming a proper nightcrawler.

Lastly there’s Vlad (Jemaine Clement), the smooth Lestat of the group. Unfortunately, much of his allure has faded over the last few years, forcing Vlad to relegate himself to securing more willing victims, such as lonely elderly men. Technically there is a fourth to the group in Petyr (Ben Fransham), but given his Nosferatu way of remaining locked away out of sight and being completely devoid of social skills, he functions as more of a giddy cameo throughout.

The danger in a movie like this is simple: Does the joke wear thin as the film rolls on? Thankfully here, the answer is a resounding no. Directors / writers / stars / probably caterers Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement already have a history of turning the absurd into reverence with their work in the “Flight of the Conchords”, and somehow they manage to repeat that feat with this unique tweaking of vampire lore.

“Shadows” is smartly broken into story arcs which keeps the film flowing steadily as we approach the outlandish finale. As it unfolds, we come across the two characters that propel the story forward while serving to function as the audience themselves: Nick and Stu (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and Stuart Rutherford). Nick is that guy all of us know who would do everything wrong if he were ever let into a society like this. He treats every aspect as though this is a vampire fraternity. While Stu is the guy who just wants to hang out, chill, and treats everyone with the utmost respect…so the entire film we are left wondering when he will finally end up as table scraps.

Along the way, “Shadows” incorporates werewolves, zombies, and just about every vampire trope you could possibly think of. Which means absolutely nothing about this film should work; everything should be tired and groan-inducing.  Instead, Waititi and Clement take a dry well, infuse it with an abundance of wit and charm, and we are left with the asinine thought that maybe these concepts aren’t nearly as drained as we originally believed. It just took some talent with a fresh take to sprinkle a little life on these undead.

Two months before the film’s release and it already feel like one of the freshest movies of the year. Waititi and Clement decided to revive 3 or 4 genres all at once and somehow, someway, they pulled it off. While it might ultimately prove too smart for mainstream audiences, “What We Do in the Shadows” has already staked out its rightful place for THE cult flick of 2015.

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider