Review: What We Do In the Shadows (This is a brilliant film)

Title: What We Do In The Shadows
Rating: 15
Cast:
Jemaine Clement ... Vladislav
Taika Waititi ... Viago
Jonny Brugh ... Deacon (as Jonathan Brugh)
Cori Gonzalez-Macuer ... Nick
Stuart Rutherford ... Stu
Jackie van Beek ... Jackie
Ben Fransham ... Petyr
Summary: A New Zealand documentary team are following the lives of four flat sharing vampires in their day to day lives.  They are not as well adapted to modern society as they think.

There is only one way to describe this film and that is: hilarious.

I loved it. I love the characters and the plot and the general silliness of it, plus it has vampires, so win/win/win/win. This is a film that is cheerfully taking the piss out of the vampire genre without being asinine or insulting to those who love it.

So the characters: we have Viago, who is a dandy and the one who fusses about the flat and everyone's duties; Vladislav, who is Dracula by any other name; Deacon, the young rebel at under 200 years old; Petyr, who lives in a stone sarcophagus and is 8000 years old. They are all brilliant in their own way.

Viago likes everything to be clean and tidy, but is totally incompetent at feeding without making a huge mess. Vladislav used to be the best at everything, but after a run in with his nemesis 'The Beast' has lost his confidence and some of his powers. Deacon thinks becoming a vampire made him incredibly sexy and irresistible. Petyr looks like Nosferatu and never actually says a word. They are all a different vampire stereotype and they are awesomely funny.

The flat meeting about doing the dishes is comedy genius.

Then we have Jackie, Deacon's human servant who does everything for him in return for one day becoming a vampire. She's just wonderfully practical about the whole thing and provides victims by inviting over people who used to be nasty to her in school.

And finally there are Nick and Stu - Nick who is a new vampire and causes no end of problems and Stu, his best friend. Everyone likes Stu better than Nick even though Stu is still human. Nick is supremely annoying, just as he should be and Stu is just brilliant; quiet, talks about IT and software all the time and is generally a geek.

The whole line up is superbly done and I love them all.

The plot is basically following along with their lives, so it's not really exciting, it's just very, very funny and so incredibly well written. They even have a Lost Boys reference so how could I not love it? I laughed a lot, out loud and I want to see it again so I can do so some more.

The only real problem I had with the film is the lack of lead female characters. We have six male leads and only one woman in there and she isn't in it as much as any of the men. It might have been fun to have a female vampire in on the flat share to add a little more diversity among the sexes.

Other than that I can't think of anything I would have changed. If you enjoy vampire films, or even if you don't, this is a truly great comedy. It's silly, it's entertaining and I can't recommend it more. Here is the trailer for your delectation.

Have you seen "What We Do In The Shadows"? What did you think? If not, do you think you might see it now?