Official Synopsis
Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav are vampires who are finding that modern life has them struggling with the mundane—like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming roommate conflicts.
Subtle humor cannot be overlooked. It’s what makes a comedy re-watchable in short spans. Movies from Mike Judge are a good example of such things. You have underlying, subtle humor that may not be ‘bust-a-gut’ funny, but days later you’ll find yourself still amused by it.
This is the brilliance within What We Do in the Shadows.
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The mockumentary follows the vampiristic adventures of Vladislav (Jermaine Clement), Viago (Taika Waititi) and Deacon (Jonny Brugh). The first act introduces each personality, as we get to see Vladislav’s violent, yet fading power side. Next is Deacon, a slob of sorts that hasn’t done dishes or improved himself over the centuries. We’re then introduced to Viago, a eloquent, victim-friendly vampire that is just happy to wake up every night to a pack of friends. All personalities that bring a bit to overall efforts. The first act of the film shifts from introductions to introducing obstacles a vampire has to get through on a night-to-night basis in New Zealand. This includes having trouble literally getting invited into night clubs (‘invitations into social places’ is a hard/fast rule of being a vampire), finding virgins to feed on and avoiding fights with werewolves.
The opening act in this film is priceless. Again, all humor is subtle in nature (or against nature), so you may not catch things the first time around, or at all immediately. For example, there is a scene where Deacon is talking about going to the dentist for a tooth issue, then he talks with his familiar, Jackie (Jackie Van Beek) who is a person that works for Deacon in hopes of getting eternal life eventually, about things she has to do, like get virgins, and casually mentions making a dentist appointment. It doesn’t sound funny, but the delivery is subtle and beautiful, and this happens quite often throughout the film. The flow of the first act sets up the later acts in the film, and also provides permission to go hog wild with the random humor. Not knowing what they’re about to get into is what makes this movie a magnet for the attention.
As the second act begins, new characters are introduced. A former victim of the crew, Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), ends up a vampire and adds some fresh blood (pun intended) to the mix. His irresponsible, young behavior rubs the crew the wrong way, but at the same time adds some more value to the overall humor package. As the act progresses, we’re introduced to a new set of folks — the werewolves. Led by Flight of the Conchords manager, Murray (Rhys Darby), who plays Anton — the lead werewolf, we get to see the ‘rivalry’ and humorous anger that goes with vampires and werewolves. The werewolves are entertaining, as they’re sort of a support group to each other. There group can be compared to the sharks in Finding Nemo, where they are trying to do the right thing, but just struggling a bit. They are a random bright spot in the flow of the film, but nonetheless a welcomed one.
Anyway, getting back to the vampires, both Nick and the crew, plus the impending doom of one of the vampires in the crew, not only makes this a fresh act, but also one that keeps the flow of the overall story going. Oh, yeah, there is a human named Stu who becomes a vital part of what makes act three work well. I won’t say much about him, but he is a brilliant character in the most subtle of ways (like that motif?).
As the movie spirals towards the third act, and its conclusion, we get to some nasty violence, dissension in the crew and a humorous, yet emotional conclusion. All of the insane trip that is planned and executed with this mockumentary is worth the journey. Much like Eagle vs. Shark and Flight of the Conchords, the humor is so lite and quite good that you’ll be ready to go again an hour or so after the movie concludes just to see what you’ve missed. Again, very subtle humor-driven stuff that does a good job and stays within its humor limits.
On the Blu-ray side of things, the movie looks positively gorgeous. Even with the goth feel of the color scheme, the picture is quite crisp and clear, even sometimes stunning for a mockumentary. The colors are crisp and clear with little to no artifacts or imperfections. Paramount did a great job with the transfer and just adds another feather in the Blu-ray transfer cap.
Sadly, there are no features. I would have loved commentary or a featurette about the production.
