What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
★★½ — What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
There is a particular breed of comedy that announces itself quietly, sets up its world with minimal fuss, and lets the absurdity do the work. What We Do in the Shadows (2014) is precisely that kind of film. Shot in Wellington, New Zealand, and presented as a fly-on-the-wall documentary, it follows a household of vampires ranging in age from a few hundred to several thousand years old, as they muddle through the demands of flatmate life, maintain their centuries-old rivalries, and attempt to guide a newly turned member into the rhythms of the undead. The tagline, "Some interviews with some vampires", tells you more or less everything you need to know about the tone. It is a comedy that wears its horror trappings lightly, borrowing the visual grammar of reality television and turning it on creatures of the night with a straight face.
The film was co-written and co-directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, two figures who had already carved out recognisable careers in New Zealand comedy before the project came together. Clement was known internationally through the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, the folk-comedy duo he formed with Bret McKenzie. Waititi had written and directed features in New Zealand and was building a reputation for a particular brand of warm, oddball humour. The two had collaborated previously and brought a shared sensibility to the project: a fondness for awkward sincerity, for characters who take their own absurd situation entirely seriously. The film was produced through Unison Films, Defender Films, and the comedy platform Funny or Die, giving it a modest, independent footing that suited the mockumentary format. It runs to a brisk 86 minutes, and the stripped-back production values, handheld camera work and improvised exchanges are baked into the concept rather than imposed on it from the outside. New Zealand has, of course, produced a number of internationally noticed films across very different registers, from the blockbuster ambitions of King Kong (2005) to the more recent spectacle of Mortal Engines (2018), and What We Do in the Shadows fits into that tradition as something smaller in scale but distinctly local in flavour.
The principal cast is built largely around the directors themselves. Clement plays Vladislav, a vampire of considerable age and dwindling powers, while Waititi takes the role of Viago, a fussy, rather gentle creature who appears to handle most of the domestic administration. Jonny Brugh plays Deacon, the youngest and most petulant of the flatmates, and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer appears as Nick, the newly turned hipster whose arrival disrupts the household's established rhythms. Stu Rutherford, playing a human friend called Stu, became something of a cult figure among the film's admirers. The performances lean into the mockumentary format, with each character delivering their lines to camera with varying degrees of conviction. The film went on to generate a successful television spin-off series of the same name, shot in New York, along with a related series focusing on werewolves, suggesting that the premise had considerably more runway than the original 86 minutes could cover. Whether the feature itself makes the best use of what it set up is, of course, a matter of opinion. If you enjoy horror comedies and want another point of comparison from around the same period, my review of Hardcore Henry (2015), another inventive genre experiment from the 2010s, is worth a look, as is my take on Anaconda (1997) for a rather different flavour of horror played with its tongue somewhere in the vicinity of its cheek.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014), the New Zealand mockumentary co-directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, arrives with a clever premise (vampires sharing a flat in Wellington) and a deadpan style that’s become a signature of modern comedy. On paper, it should work: centuries-old bloodsuckers bickering over chores, struggling with modern technology, and navigating supernatural bureaucracy is ripe for satire. And while the film has its moments, it never quite rises above being mildly amusing. The humour leans heavily on dry delivery and mundane situations played straight, but too often the jokes land with a thud rather than a laugh. The improvisational feel, while authentic, sometimes reads as underwritten, and the pacing drags in stretches where not much happens beyond awkwardness or repetitive squabbles. The performances are committed but uneven; Waititi and Clement bring charm, yet others feel like they’re trying too hard to be quirky rather than genuinely funny. Visually, it’s functional rather than inspired. Grainy handheld camerawork sells the mockumentary conceit, but there’s little cinematic flair to elevate it beyond TV sketch territory. And while the film clearly influenced later comedies (including its own successful TV spin-offs), the original feels slight, even disposable. What We Do in the Shadows isn’t bad, but it’s far from brilliant. It’s an average film that trades on a single idea without fully exploring its potential. If you’re already a fan of the franchise, you’ll find glimmers of what’s to come, but as a standalone movie, it’s more “meh” than memorable. Funny in places? Sure. But not enough to make you howl.
That feeling of a promising idea that never quite catches fire is one I find hard to shake with this one. There are individual moments here that made me smile, and the commitment of Waititi and Clement to the bit is never in question, but commitment alone does not make a film land. A strong concept is the starting point, not the destination, and What We Do in the Shadows sometimes seems to mistake the former for the latter. The spin-offs may well have learned from those gaps and filled them more successfully, but the original stands as a curiosity more than a classic. Charming in patches, forgettable in aggregate. The shadows, it turns out, are not quite dark enough to hide the thin spots.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2014 | Watched: 2026-05-05
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for What We Do in the Shadows (2014) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Taika Waititi: Thor: Ragnarok (2017) · Next Goal Wins (2023)
More from New Zealand: Mortal Engines (2018) · King Kong (2005) · 'Aho'eitu (2015) · Atoll People (1970)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · Imperial Dreams (2014)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
