What We Do In The Shadows

What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

95% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 111 reviews)

Runtime: 86 minutes

Directed by: Jemaine Clement/Taika Waititi

Starring: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stuart Rutherford

From: Several companies, including apparently Funny or Die, of all people

For the first time in months I returned to the arthouse joint in Orlando known as Enzian. The last time I had a bad audience experience; now, they even tell people not to be A-holes but of course there were some A-holes around. That makes me sad that sort of behavior is now common at such a place. A regular theatre is one thing, but an arthouse joint? Sigh... that said, this movie is still great. The Letterboxd review is below and I'll be back tomorrow night.

Last night before I left to go see this film in a theatre, I mentioned to my mother that I was seeing a foreign movie. Her reaction? “Blah, I hate foreign films!” I believe she was talking about those that require subtitles (she's a dub instead of a sub person) but after that reaction I figured she did not want to know that I was going to see a New Zealand/United States mockumentary about vampires. Quite clearly I have different movie tastes than that of either parent.

Anyhow, I had heard high praise for this here and elsewhere so when I had the opportunity to watch this on the big screen I was happy to do so. Like I said this is a mockumentary where several vampires (including one silent bloodsucker who looks just like Nosferatu) live in a Wellington house and they are filmed for a few months. You see that they experience the sort of problems regular people can have with roommates (not doing the dishes/leaving trash laying around) but also problems that presumably none of us have to deal with (issues with werewolves, a human lady that helps the vampires wants to be turned but that keeps on getting delayed).

This horror/comedy is always really funny, especially for horror fans and those that know vampire lore. That gets playfully spoofed and many tropes are spotlighted and made fun of. It was nice to laugh at all those humorous moments with a crowd. I don't want to spoil too much of the plot or the various surprises that happen but such things as a young newly turned vampire wanting to be buddies with the old guard but they prefer his nerd human friend instead... a lot of this is like what we could typically experience in our lives... except that none of us are undead and hundreds of years old. For the fans of gore, there are a few rather bloody moments.

Quite simply, I give my highest recommendation to those horror fans out there to see this as soon as they can.