What We Do in the Shadows

A comedy from beyond the grave, which, however, respects almost every conceivable rule of the vampire genre and is all the better for it. Vampires don't like to wash dishes, they wipe dust by dragging lifeless bodies, they can't play musical instruments much, and they also snort quite terribly when they go out into society, but who wouldn't want to become one of them after the end credits? Perhaps only a flea-filled werewolf. (05/06/2016)

(49th KVIFF) Cute vampires (and werewolves, zombies and other similar creatures) in an incredibly funny mockumentary comedy. The midnight screening was worth it and the excited audience added to the experience. The film ends before it manages to build any sort of solid story through that relentless series of jokes. Those who say that a sitcom format would be more suitable for these vampires are right, after all, this is film is already a sitcom episode stretched to 90 minutes. (12/07/2014)

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)

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)