Just leave me to do my dark bidding on the Internet! I'm bidding on a table.
✯✯✯✯ 1/2
The best thing about What We Do in the Shadows is that it memorializes the memorable pieces of classic horror cinema while simultaneously mocking the worst parts of it. One of the vampires is 8,000 years old and looks exactly like Dracula in F.W. Murnau's classic silent film Nosferatu, and the vampire group frequently clashes with a menacing pack of werewolves.
Throughout this hilarious mockumentary, our four subject characters depict the normal everynight life of an average vampire, while simultaneously preparing for a massive annual ball where many vampires, zombies, and werewolves are in attendance. Each of the vampires has their own intricate backstory depicted through classical artist renditions of vicious horrific acts, all while being narrated in a hilariously realistic documentary style.
Simply put, What We Do in the Shadows is one of the funniest films I've seen in years. It manages to deliver all its comedy in a smart, anti-horror way while avoiding the many tropes that plague most modern comedies. You don't see stupidly executed romantic subplots, you don't see outdated slapstick, there isn't even a lot of sexual humor. The everyday lives of these vampires are shown in a way that makes the audience feel like it was really happening, and the charismatic main characters never failed to make me laugh until I cried.
Our four main characters are so lovingly crafted that it will be nearly impossible for me to forget them. They are almost depicted as hilariously metro-sexual night crawlers, always out on the prowl when the sun isn't shining. They have a strict set of rules that limits how many people can actually be turned into vampires, as they need more humans for sustenance. The way the vampires are so nonchalantly depicted when they devour human blood, and how relatively clean most of them try to be while doing so, provides a fresh new look at the horror subgenre that is unique in its own right. These vampires are hundreds of years old, but they are just as spry as they were when first transformed. They are also shown to be just as human as they are vampire, which probably doesn't make any sense, but I guarantee if you watch it you may understand what I'm getting at.
My only regret about this film is that it is so short, and that it simply had to end. On the blu-ray, there are over 30 minutes of deleted scenes. Some of these scenes were quite funny, and while others clearly wouldn't have fit with the pacing, I feel like the directors could have managed to put some of this footage back in to extend the runtime a little bit. A movie this hilarious deserves more screen time, and while I feel like a sequel would be completely unnecessary, I wouldn't complain if they decided to make a spin-off mockumentary focusing on one of the other supernatural groups. A mockumentary about zombies is something that I could totally get on board with.
If you haven't seen What We Do in the Shadows, the latest release straight out of New Zealand, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy. This is definitely a movie worth blind buying, and you'll find yourself dying of laughter by the end. While the runtime was a little shorter than I care for, what did make it into the film is nothing short of sublimely hilarious. It's one of the most original comedies in years, and straight up one of the funniest films I have ever seen.