Are you sick of books, movies, and TV shows about vampires? Of course you are! The vampire fad died a slow, agonizing death with each passing season of the once pleasurable and eventually awful True Blood. But before you throw the hat in completely, let me recommend one more bloodsucking film for the road: What We Do in the Shadows.
This film, directed by Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement (two of the creators of Flight of the Conchords), is a work of comedic genius. Filmed in documentary style, it follows the daily events of four vampires who live as flatmates in modern New Zealand. There's Viago (played by Waititi), a chipper 300-something year old vamp who serves as the "cruise director" of the documentary, showing the filmmakers around the flat. There's Deacon (Jonny Brugh), who is the youngest of the group at age 180 and is very into flamboyant club wear and sex. Vladislav (Clement) is a bit more mature at 560-ish, but also tends towards fits of depression that lead him to capture people and torture them. In his human life he was known as "Vladislav the Poker" for his love of poking people with hot irons and the like. When he is introduced to Facebook and someone tells him he can "poke" a friend, his look into the camera is priceless.
Finally, there's Petyr (Ben Fransham), who is 4,000 years old and looks like this:
Needless to say, Petyr doesn't get out as much as the others.
WWDitS shows Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav going about their daily lives: they have a chore wheel to make sure everyone cleans up after themselves; Viago talks about his techniques in wooing a lady before killing her and drinking her blood; and the guys get into a few scuffles with a local gang of werewolves (pack leader Anton is played by Rhys Darby, better known as Murray from Flight of the Conchords). When the guys accidentally turn intended victim Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) into a vampire life gets more complicated as they now have to look after a baby vamp (although the upside is they get to hang out with Nick's friend Stu, who they all like more than Nick)
It's no surprise that WWDitS shares a similar sense of humor with Flight of the Conchords. The humor is deadpan and absurd, exposing the inherent silliness of vampire tropes, such as avoiding the sun's deadly rays and being able to fly. I don't want to say too much about the movie or give away any of the best jokes. So I'll leave you with this: if you hate the vampire trend in pop culture, you will love What We Do in the Shadows...and if you *love* the vampire trend in pop culture, you will also love What We Do in the Shadows. Basically, it's a win-win.
Grade: A
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