What We Do in the Shadows - Just like Twilight (only joking... thankfully)

A film about vampires.  My first thought – oh... another one – great.  Add the fact that it’s a ‘mockumentary’ i.e. a spoof documentary filmed in a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ kind of fashion.  My first thought – oh, another one – great.

Yes, there is truly nothing original about ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ – a spoof documentary, charting the lives of four ancient vampires, currently flat-sharing in modern day New Zealand.  Perhaps the generally lack of originality was what made me watch it with such low expectations.  In any case... I was more than pleasantly surprised.

It was actually really good.  In short... it was funny.  It takes a lot for a ‘comedy’ film to actually make me laugh and this one pulled it off.  Yes, there’s absolutely nothing ‘idea-wise’ that we haven’t seen before, but with a sharp, satirical script, that doesn’t matter.  It’s just such a daft, fun film that anyone who has a love of the horror/vampire genre will definitely enjoy it.  You do need to know a little bit in general about vampire films.  Naturally, there are more than a few jokes based on the general Dracula legend that might go over your head if you haven’t seen the film or read the book.

Yes, most of the vampires are pretty stereotypical (for undead blood-suckers) and you should recognise their ‘types’ among the genre.  But, as I say, it’s simply the comedy that saves this film from potentially being just mediocre.

If you enjoy your horror/vampire yarns, relax your brain and put this one.  It really is simply amusing.  Special credit to the wonderful scenes with the swearwolves... sorry WERE wolves.  Classic.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one