Film Review: "What We Do in the Shadows" (2014).

Every critic has called this movie “Hilarious”, which is what you’d expect from What We Do in the Shadows. A New Zealand horror comedy film about a group of vampires who live together in Wellington, New Zealand. It was directed and written by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, who also star in the film.

The film is nothing more than the brainchild of two of New Zealand’s great comedy talents, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. Taika Cohen, or better known as Taika Waititi, is a filmmaker, writer, painter comedian and actor. He first came into prominence with the 2003 short film Two Cars, One Night. Which was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2007, he made his directorial debut with the 2007 film Eagle vs. Shark. His 2010 film Boy was a major hit, eclipsing several records, and became the highest grossing film in New Zealand. Jemaine Clement is a comedian, actor and musician best known for the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords with Bret McKenzie. And also starred in Eagle vs. Shark. The two collaborated again for the 2006 short film version of What We Do in the Shadows.

The film follows the lives of Viago (Taika Waititi), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), and Vladislav (Jemaine Clement) - three flatmates who are just trying to get by and overcome life's obstacles-like being immortal vampires who must feast on human blood. Hundreds of years old, the vampires are finding that beyond sunlight catastrophes, hitting the main artery, and not being able to get a sense of their wardrobe without a reflection-modern society has them struggling with the mundane like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts. The performances in this film, even though it was not my type of humor, were all hilariously outrageous. The hats go off to Waititi, Clement, Brugh, Darby and Gonzalez-Macuer who carried the film's quirky journey into the Vampire underworld... as well as the Were-Wolf world.

Side-splitting, blood-sucking and gloriously gory horror comedy, What We Do in the Shadows is a good vampire comedy. But there were times that the film's broader moments fell flat, some genre fans who prefer the silly to the satiric may bite, but the anemic pic isn’t remotely weird or witty enough for cult immortality. But it boasts a script crammed with quirky gags and is pacily directed and nicely acted. Clement and Waititi's horror-comedy boasts a unique ad quirky premise – a group of vampires flatting in Wellington, New Zealand - that gives the budding auteurs plenty of room for gross-out visuals and absurd cleverness. The film is so off the beaten track that it makes Black Sheep (2006) seem mainstream. To conclude, it is extremely bloody and exceedingly good fun, thanks to Clement and Waititi's affection for the tastelessly sublime. There is nothing more I can say about this particular New Zealand film.

Simon says What We Do in the Shadows receives: