What We Do in the Shadows is a low-budget, horror comedy about a small group of vampires that live in an apartment together in modern day New Zealand. The plot focuses on how these vampires adapt to a new vampire joining their group. The four initial vampires consist of Deacon, Petyr, Viago and Vladislav. Each of these vampires come from drastically different backgrounds and range from a couple hundred to a several thousand years old. This variety in backgrounds allows the characters to be very unique and it makes their interactions funny and interesting. This movie has one goal and one goal, only: the make you laugh. The plot is not very deep and can sometimes lack flow, but the jokes are consistently funny so you really don't care. The film is shot like a documentary. Characters will occasionally talk to the camera similar to Modern family or the Office. The quick cuts and explanatory dialogue allows fantastic comedic timing. The special effects are low budget but are most of the time done very well. Some of the camera tricks are very impressive and make the scenes feel quite real. The flying effects are quite poor, though. It is obvious that the actors are just suspended by wires. This might seem like a negative, but the way it is portrayed on screen makes it quite hilarious. There are a couple of brief action scenes which are done well enough. The chases can get quite shaky, though. This is a rated R film, but the graphic material was handled very well. There are a few f-words, but they are rare enough and used to appropriate places most of the time. The blood is so over-the-top and silly that it didn't bother me at all. If there is anything that would be extremely graphic, it is blurred out. I wasn't expecting much when entering the theater, but I left thoroughly entertained. If you want to laugh and if don't care that the plot is somewhat irrelevant then you will have a blast.
Review of What We Do in the Shadows
