Movie review: What We Do in the Shadows

What We Do in the Shadows is a bit of a joke.

We interrupt this movie review for some documentation obtained under the Very Official Information Act ...

To the New Zealand Documentary Board,

Dear sirs,

I am writing to you to complain about the "film" What We Do in the Shadows. If we haven't already suffered through enough reality television trash, now we are being asked to do it at the cinema too. People go to the pictures to avoid the likes of The GC, which at least has some attractive young people of both genders out enjoying the sunlight.

But now it seems, with your backing, we must pay (twice!) to see some flakes with foreign accents claiming to be vampires traipse around Wellington at night for nearly an hour and a half. True, I did get my ticket free. And I was interested in seeing the film because a friend said it involved some of the stars of such films as The Green Lantern, Men in Black 3 which are clearly proper movies with proper special effects and film stars.

Ok, the special effects in this one were good too -- all that flying about the place. But are special effects doing in a documentary anyway? Just goes to prove my point. This is an act of fakery and these people are clearly nutters and so are those who thought filming them was a good idea.

Vampires? Don't make me laugh! Though the guys pretending to be werewolves did. Not sure why.

Trailer: What We Do in the Shadows

Anyway, the point remains, every thing about What We Do in the Shadows is a giant joke that has been played on its makers and the viewing public. We don't actually get to see what they do in the shadows either. The lighting is actually quite nice. Apart from the werewolf bit involving Stu which was even more frightening that the bit where the "vampire" named Deacon danced in such a way that it made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Again, not sure why. As for the normal folks who have been drawn into this mad "cult" ... I just found myself wanting to shake some sense into them. Especially that Jackie woman. Not so much that Stu guy, who looks like a decent bloke who has just mixed up with a bad bunch.

As for the main two guys Viago and Vladislav, talk about deluded preening narcissists. Who do they think they are? Big time film stars or something? Mark my words, there is something very funny going on here. It's as if these guys have watched too many vampire movies and decided they wanted to be in one so much they made one themselves. Who does that? Weirdos.

Yours etc, Film Fan of Albert St

Cast:

Taiki Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Johnny Brugh, Cori Gonzalez Macuer

Directors:

Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement

Rating:

R13 (violence and offensive language)

Verdict:

Fangtastically funny

- TimeOut