What We Do in the Shadows

I love it. It has its flaws, and the trio of über-cool vampires have their weaker moments in the middle, but it's impossible not to love this peculiar documentary (sorry, mockumentary). Waititi and Clement took it all the way and serve the viewer with a uniquely funny and detailed cross-section of vampire mythology, in which they manage to present all the otherwise stale motifs about sleeping in coffins or burning in the sunlight in an original and effective way, so that the story doesn't just run on quick gags – each supporting character has an important role to play in terms of revealing the whole well thought-out fictional world or the adaptation of the vampires to modern times. The whole thing would certainly work best as a multi-part sitcom, and I’m giving it 5* mainly due to my innate sympathy for Waititi's sense of humour, but it's still great fun and, from a certain point of view, a fountain of wisdom – the housemates' problems around washing and cleaning up reflect quite faithfully the cohabitation of university students in a shared flat. I could tell a story or two myself. (05/05/2018)

I can’t think of any other word than “genius”. What We Do in the Shadows is an absolutely genius parody that earnestly makes fun of vampires and, here and there, werewolves. Not of particular movies or particular characters, just vampires in and of themselves. And after watching some of the scenes, I believe that they’ll become legendary, granted that the movie makes its way into the world. Who would have thought that it was filmed by New Zealand authors? I watched this for the Challenge Tour 2015. (07/04/2015)

What We Do in the Shadows is a somewhat alternative horror comedy with a documentary style, in which we get a glimpse into the lives of supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves. Not a bad idea, but the film probably missed me as the target audience or I don't have the right sense of humour. Despite the many imaginative scenes I couldn't help feeling bored, which is a bit unpleasant for such a short film, and somehow I found the actions of the actors more awkward than funny at times, which was probably the point, but I just wasn't amused. In short, for me, a completely average film that has something going for it, but which I was unfortunately unable to appreciate. (12/05/2015)

A pseudo-documentary about vampires that humorously targets vampire stereotypes and successfully makes you laugh while cleverly parodying their lifestyle and daily routine. It doesn't often happen to me that I laugh out loud at a movie for so long that my laughter smoothly transitions into the next laugh caused by the next joke. And when it happens, I consider it a rarity. It happened to me during this film all the time, because there are dozens, if not hundreds, of good (and often pretty sophisticated) jokes. (11/07/2014)

I guess I expected it to be a little funnier. It has to be acknowledged, though, that it's truly immensely original, and the pop culture humor isn’t cheap, but rather in line with the overall tone of the film. The humor it maintains throughout is overall good, and after a long time, it's a mockumentary that actually makes sense. (09/11/2015)