WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS ***** New Zealand 2014 Dir: Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi. 86 mins
The team behind TV’s FLIGHT OF THE CONCORDS and EAGLE VS SHARK earned an equally appreciative fanbase with this wonderfully witty satire of pompous vampire movies. In the wake of BBC TV’s THE OFFICE (though the tone is closer to SPINAL TAP), it masquerades as a documentary from a New Zealand TV crew granted full access to a secret society of vampires in the build-up to their prestigious Unholy Masquerade ball. The vampire flatmates include lovelorn, good-natured 18th century dandy Waititi; hissing, feral 800 year old Ben Fransham (modelled on NOSFERATU or, perhaps, Mr Barlow in SALEM’S LOT); young and rebellious Deacon (Jonathan Brough), who resents chores (“Vampires don’t do dishes”); and a torture-happy Vlad the Impaler-type played by co-director Clement. Cori Gonzalez-Macuer plays a recently “turned” young man adjusting to his new life. Cleverly sending up an assortment of vampire archetypes from a century of cinema, this relishes the chance to parody some of the more po-faced, posturing bloodsuckers of recent years while offering the rare opportunity to see vampires knitting, hoovering and preparing to go out on the pull. It yields big laughs when depicting the messy inconvenience of accidentally hitting a main artery or revealing the fate of a Van Helsing-like vampire hunter. Other highlights include “The Procession of Shame”, an altercation with some insecure werewolves and the vampires routinely stealing ideas from THE LOST BOYS. Clement and Waititi – just three years away from the big-time of THOR: RAGNAROK – have fun with a chain of movie references (TWILIGHT, BLADE, et al) but are affectionate in their ribbing of 21st century vampire over-saturation in the media. Too many fabulous lines to quote here, but our favourite: “I know Stu, it’s how he would have wanted to go…disembowelled by werewolves…”
Review by Steven West
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS is available on Amazon