If there is any justice, What We Do In The Shadows (henceforth WWDITS), will break out into the light of day as a crossover hit. This film is absolutely hysterical, came as a complete surprise to me, and even breathes life back into the withering corpse of the doc-comedy style of The Office.
The creative team behind WWDITS are largely unfamiliar to me, although I had read about co-star/co-writer/co-director Taika Waititi’s previous projects Eagle Vs. Shark and Boy. Even less familiar to me was Jemaine Clement of Flight Of The Conchords fame, who also co-stars/co-writes/co-directs here. The two star as Viago and Vladislov, respectively, who are actually ancient vampires and current flat-mates in contemporary New Zealand. They’ve invited a documentary team to film their day to day lives as they prepare for a major annual festival which gathers together the whole spectrum of undead beings, from zombies to werewolves, etc. They also flat with Petyr (Ben Francham), a 3000 year old vampire more than a little inspired by Nosferatu, and Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), the “youngest” among them and a bit of a rock star. Viago is dainty and refined, having been born into aristocracy. He’s the kind of vampire that likes to lay down newspaper and sheets before a kill, so as not to get the furniture messy. The long-haired Vladislov is a riff on the lordly, gothic land-owner version of Count Dracula… only his bloodlust and powers of hypnotic sexuality seem to have worn off after a historic battle with “The Beast”. Now when he transforms into various creatures of the night… he can’t quite get the faces right. Cats, Bats… all creatures just kind of have Jemaine Clement’s face (to hilarious effect). Deacon’s conflict comes into play when a new young vampire is turned by Petyr and brought into their social circle, replacing him as the youngest and most savvy of the group. Not to mention that new vampire Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, whose attempts to eat a french fry after he is turned yield possibly the biggest laugh in the whole film) is a lot less cool than his human friend Stu (Stuart Rutherford), who teaches them all how to use computers and take selfies, but occasionally gets in over his head among these bloodthirsty creatures of the night. So as they live their lives, wrestle with the addition of a new vampire to their crew, and approach the upcoming annual gathering, a brisk pace of gut-busting humor will carry audiences through.
The style of humor might feel very familiar to fans of shows like The Office, in which on the fly interviews and documentary-style footage are routine. Throughout the film our characters will acknowledge the presence of a camera and the documentary crew behind them. But the crew never become characters themselves and WWDITS clearly avoids the trap of being a “found footage” film as such. If you cringe at the idea of another entry in this particular style, fear not. I am getting tired of this kind of thing as well and yet, even if the style is on the verge of death, clever teams keep finding new ways of making it work. The key here in WWDITS is that its real hook is its characters and stars, the insanely talented Waititi and Clement, and not visual effects or a sick twist ending. Here in 2014, WWDITS isn’t so much “high concept” as it is a wildly successful example of team comedy firing on all cylinders and good old-fashioned quality scripting.
The set up of “flatting” vampires from various periods of history could easily have gotten old, and probably wasn’t enough to fill out a feature length screenplay. But great characters and an engaging script that provides just enough content and conflict to keep us interested extend the shelf life of the comedy, and I ended up laughing heartily right on through the end credits (which have a few payoffs of their own included within). And on top of all that hilarity and great character work, there’s even a respectful and knowing vampire story at the heart of WWDITS. As mentioned, several of our characters are playing their own versions of some of cinema’s great vampires, including thinly veiled takes on Dracula and Nosferatu, and the film is rife with references to The Lost Boys and other classics (many of which our characters have seen themselves). The beloved comedic trope of a gaggle of man-children being forced to grow up (currently explosively popular due to the meteoric success of master of the art Will Ferrell) is used to wonderful effect among these ancient beings of great power. There is so much vampire lore to play with and so many cool visuals to be employed, and Waititi and Clement are playing with every tool in the sandbox here.
There are cool visual elements, such as vampires’ power of flight, which not only look awesome in the film but result in just about a dozen successful sight gags. The aforementioned powers of transformation, seduction, and mind control are all built into the stories of our characters and offer points for laughter and dimensionality as well.
Walking out of the theater and on into today, I simply can’t imagine a way that these filmmakers could have better executed and followed through on the set up of What We Do In The Shadows. The jokes never stop coming, and even at a mile a minute, they never wear out their welcome. I found the ratio of successful jokes to be so high that I could imagine this team maturing into a modern equivalent of the Monty Python troupe if they keep working together and keep improving on what they’ve done here in this film. As of right now, WWDITS is the surprise hit of the festival for me. I didn’t know the film existed before I started hearing great buzz about it on Twitter. And even sitting in the theater I wasn’t particularly familiar with the previous careers of the stars and creators. But none of that mattered. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge or interest in vampire stories have a treat in store when they check out What We Do In The Shadows. This film could very easily remain in the indie-comedy fringes, but I believe it has a mass appeal that could secure it a place in cult-comedy history. Relentlessly hilarious, clever, and charming, What We Do In The Shadows is a vampire comedy for all eternity.
And I’m Out.