What We Do In the Shadows (2014)

Review

"We're Werewolves, not Swear-Wolves." - Anton (Werewolf)

A documentary film crew is allowed into a vampire den to record the night time activities of four modern day bloodsuckers. We get to meet Vladislav, a Lord Byron stand in, Viago, an Edwardian dandy, Deacon, the rebellious youngster, and Petyr, the Nosferatu like blood sucking fiend. We quickly learn this isn't so much a den as a shared flat situation with all the modern difficulties of joint living in Wellington; things like chore roosters, washing dishes, and cleaning blood out of about everything. Naturally Petyr turns a human, Nick, into a new vampire and the group must teach him to become a creature of the night. On the bright side they get to meet Stu, Nick's slightly boring human friend who everyone takes a liking to.

So how do century's old vampires get into night clubs when they need to be invited in, deal with other creatures of darkness, and handle old girlfriends? Complicating matters are a pack of werewolves, zombies, and other vampires, all of which view Stu as a snack. Get ready to check out an interview with a vampire, Kiwi style!

Combining the comedic talents of Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Concords) and Taika Waititi (Boy, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnarok) proved to be a success with What We Do providing a unique view on the vampire from a New Zealand perspective. Both directors have a habit of putting extraordinary characters in normal suburban settings and then sitting back to see what will transpire. The gruesome twosome don't deviate from vampire mythology but interlace that with the modern world, well as modern as Wellington ever gets. No offence to Wellywood inhabitants but we are not exactly dealing with a super city setting here, though the Directors are getting it exactly right, you really need to have spent some time in the Kiwi capital to get the archetypes being thrown onto the screen.

I was quite intrigued to see how the mix of vampire ye oldie lore with a modern setting would pan out and the props department don't disappoint here. We get plenty of authentic looking drawings of vampires and other supernatural creatures, aged photos of our vampire crew in historic locations - particularly liked Deacon as a member of the Nazi Vampire legion, and some decent enough looking period robe for the various creatures of the night. For those of us who have been following vampire tales in various epics things are ringing true with each of the fanged flatmates representing a different vampiric age, and this is only enhanced by the additional fang bangers we meet as the documentary unfolds. Look out for two young female vamps that are off to prey on a paedophile, excellent touch for mine that bright a wry smile to my face.

Besides the vamps the biggest group of supernatural creatures are a pack of werewolves lead by the alpha male Anton, who has all the personality of a particularly dull Accountant. Clearly the Vampires and Werewolves are not exactly on good terms, with both apparently sniffing each other out and avoiding conflict by growling sort of menacingly. We do get a full moon situation, involving lupine transformation and a battle between the species but don't expect a side track into Underworld territory, though I was amused by the vamps showing off their flying skills while the wolves did the wolfen thing. On the bright side Anton does get his pack mates to wear track pants, which expand as they transform, though a lot of the pack had their dacs in the wash so replacement jeans are going to be a major purchase item in the coming week for the pack.

The cleverness inherent in this movie is to take a den of blood drenched vampires and turn it into the big brother household with vampires that are more geeks than terror inducing hunters. Each vampire has a back story that favours traditional horror elements with moving to New Zealand of all places. Our vampires might be on the hunt but they tend to use the internet, hit the night spots, and generally fumble their way through life largely playing at their roles. I was surprised they aren't making deposits and withdrawals at the local blood bank.

Naturally I had a few issues with the movie that didn't become apparent on first viewing but stuck out after a couple more sessions like, well, werewolf balls. Foremost there wasn't really much of a story here, in true mockumentary fashion we are following a group that are central to the story and are pretty much left waiting on them to do something interesting, to be honest not a lot of that goes down besides a few clearly preordained scenes.

Things are building to the Unholy Masquerade, where the creatures of the night celebrate being who they are. In typical fashion the Masquerade is a pretty low key affair put on by Vampires, Witches, and the Walking dead and the Beast is the guest of honour much to certain bloodsuckers horror. Watch the movie to get the full Beast lowdown, which is amusing and had me giggling like a school girl meeting the members of the latest Boy band. Of course our Vampires have made a slight error in not only bringing along the human Stu, but also a human camera crew, though Vladislav does think eating one cameraman is okay.

Following the Masquerade we get the only real action scene of the entire movie with our vampire crew running across the werewolf pack starting to change under a full moon. The effects here are pretty solid, though the Directors keep things nice and dark to add in the transformation, if you have been checking out recent werewolf movies then you are right at home with the size and ferocity of the lupine horde. Interestingly we get floating vampires, an idea that permutes right through the movie, though all it achieves is to keep the vamps above the fangs and claws of the lycanthrope. Not entirely sure the vampire air tactic floated successfully from a cinematic viewpoint to be honest but interesting enough effect.

Well we don't really get chills with What We Do though we do get a full exploration of the vampire mythology in a modern setting, the Directors are more interested in investing unique characters in a new setting, strangers in a strange land if you like. There is a fair amount of humour involved, the movie isn't meant to be taken seriously, though whether or not that will work for you is dependent on how dark your funny bone just happens to be. While there definitely isn't a lot in the T&A front to get excited about, sorry ladies, there really doesn't need to be. Look for scenes involving one of the vamps "cradle snatching" his long term love interest and a nice twist on the familiar thing with a touch of feminist politics involved, thought that once again is from a downbeat Kiwi sense of humour front. I also found one artery scene wickedly amusing, though to be honest Gary Larson already hit on the idea in a Far Side cartoon panel.

There's a few kiwi movies we need to get through and this was one that definitely got me in the mood to knock over the back catalogue of, oh I don't know, one other movie. So hey not as bad as our backlog of Aussies shockers, and lets not even go near horror television. I had some good times with What We Do In The Shadows, dug all the referencing of vampiric lore, and was definitely grooving to the modern setting in Public bureaucratic Wellington. The writing is tight, the gags are worth catching, but there's no plot to speak of which brings down my rating a tad. Good entertaining mockumentary, worth catching a screening on disc or via one of the streaming services, recommended folks. One of those movies that you'll either dig or will be bored by, see what you make of it, just remember Vampires or dudes don't use towels.