*trigger warning of blood, body gore in the movie and the videos I’ve posted*

Last week, I had the lovely pleasure of seeing the mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. The movie comes out of New Zealand, from one of the Flight of the Conchords duo Jemaine Clement, and follows around a few vampires that all live together in the modern world. The movie does center on vampires and a few other members of the undead nature so there is some horror/blood/body gore throughout the movie, just as a warning.

Where do I even begin with the things I love about this movie. The mockumentary style has been done so much over the past few years and can easily be done wrong but not here – the style works so well with the story and writing and is very well paced. The movie also brings this dry sense of humor to the extremely overdone vampire trope, allowing the movie to be funny rather than annoying. And there’s enough of a modern humorous twist to the characters and story that allows for this movie to be a refreshing parody than repetitive.

The characters are each hilarious and wonderful in their own ways, with the supporting cast of characters just as wonderful as the main trio. There is the massive downside that most of the cast are white men (with very very few exceptions of a few ladies and far fewer people of color in any regard). As a sidenote, I’ll eventually write about representation and how a lack of diversity within media is incredibly annoying but that’ getting slightly off topic for today. And the mockumentary style allows for some history and context of the vampires, giving each a little more humanity (if possible). Plus, the rivalry between the vampires and werewolves is yet another hilarious aspect of the movie.

Overall, I really liked this movie – it’s definitely a refreshing parody of the vampire genre and great use of the mockumentary style. I definitely recommend seeing it if you have the chance!