What We Do In the Shadows

Film (2014)

With Jemaine Clement (Vladislav), Taika Waititi (Viago), Jonathan Brugh (Deacon), Cori Gonzalez-Macuer (Nick), Stuart Rutherford (Stu), Jackie van Beek (Jackie), Elena Stejko (Pauline Ivanovich, The Beast)

A bunch of vampires lives in a group house in Wellington, New Zealand. They have the usual roommate issues, including who does the dishes when. They are threatened by daylight, of course, and not at all on friendly terms with werewolves.

Seemingly created in an improvisational style, this lovely piece of fluff from Jemaine Clement, of The Flight of the Conchords fame, and Taika Waititi, packs in quite a few amusing lines. There are no real knee slappers here, but there is a continual run of sweetly funny bons mots which seem to emerge very naturally from the gags.

Arguing with one another at one of their “flat meetings,” one vampire, complaining about the mess around the house says “I’m so embarrassed when people come over.” Another vampire responds: “If they come over, you kill them. Vampires don’t do dishes!” From the wings, another of the vampire roommates asides: “He’s the young bad boy of the group.”

All of this is quietly, not uproariously, hilarious, and it continues quite pleasantly in this vein throughout.

Jackie, the young human aide of one of the vampires, looks forward to eternal life when he takes her into the fold. Another vampire attacks a 96 year old woman who appears very happy to find more un-life ahead with her vampire-amour. Nick, a new vampire in the group, says how he’s found “a whole new family who take me for who I am, even though they killed me.”

When one of them accidentally gets exposed to the daytime, with dire results, they declare “our friend has just been killed in a sunlight accident.”

Investigated by the police, the vampires worry that more police will come, “and then Christians, which is the last thing we need.”

Hovering over the events is the bitter rivalry between Vladislav, now an 862 year old vampire, and the so-called “Beast.” When the time for “The Unholy Masquerade,” bringing together zombies, banshees and vampires, swings around, Vladislav muses that he may be asked as the guest of honor. Alas, spurned, who should turn up as that very guest of honor but The Beast. When they all enter The Cathedral of Despair and find The Beast there, it is, in fact, Pauline, Vladislav’s old girlfriend.

“I can smell a virgin at 1000 paces” muses a female vampire at the masquerade ball with the suspicion of a human IT professional being present.

Naturally, all vampires are seducers, and the seduction in this film is the quaint ordinariness of these characters. “I go for a look I call dead but delicious” says one of them, and one might regard this sweet trifle of a film in that way as well – a morsel that melts in one’s mouth, and leaves a brief smile without promising or pretending anything more.

– BADMan