What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Let me be straight with you: I wanted to love this one. Vampires sharing a grotty flat in Wellington, bickering over whose turn it is to do the dishes, struggling to get into nightclubs because nobody's invited them in. It's a brilliant idea. And a brilliant idea, executed with genuine wit and discipline, should produce something special. What We Do in the Shadows produces something merely fine.

Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement co-direct and co-star, and both are clearly talented. You can see the DNA of something great in here. The mockumentary format is committed to, the deadpan delivery is mostly well-judged, and there are individual moments that genuinely made me laugh. The premise alone earns the film some good will, and the best scenes, usually the ones rooted in the mundane friction of flatmate life, land with a quiet absurdity that suits the material perfectly.

But "moments" isn't the same as a film. And too often, What We Do in the Shadows coasts on the strength of its concept rather than doing the hard work of making it sing. The improvised, loose quality that gives the best mockumentaries their energy here sometimes reads more as underwritten. A scene drifts. A joke lands with a quiet thud. You wait for the build and it never quite comes. It's the comedy equivalent of someone telling you a funny story, getting distracted halfway through, and sort of trailing off.

The performances are uneven too. Waititi and Clement bring real charm, and their commitment to the bit is admirable. But some of the supporting players tip from quirky into try-hard, and the film doesn't always know how to rein that in. Quirk without discipline is just noise, and there's a fair bit of noise here.

Visually, it does what it needs to. The handheld, grainy look sells the mockumentary conceit well enough, but there's nothing here that suggests a filmmaker pushing the format somewhere new. Compare this to Waititi's later work, like Thor: Ragnarok (2017), where you can feel a genuine visual personality at work, and it's hard not to notice how functional this one feels by comparison. TV sketch territory is a fair description.

The film clearly resonated with audiences, spawned a successful American TV spin-off, and built a whole franchise around itself. Fair enough. I can see what people responded to. But revisiting or encountering the original on its own terms, as a standalone movie, it feels slight. The idea is generous enough to sustain ninety minutes, just about, but only just. And there's a version of this film that's a stone cold classic. This isn't that version.

What We Do in the Shadows isn't bad. I want to be clear about that. It's not a film I'd warn people off. If you've already fallen for the franchise through the TV shows, you'll find the roots here interesting, and some of the charm will carry you through the slower patches. But if you're coming to it cold, hoping for something that earns its reputation as a modern comedy classic, you might find yourself checking your watch more than you expected.

Funny in places? Genuinely, yes. Brilliant? Not even close. Two and a half stars.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 2014  | Watched: 2026-05-05

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Shudder Amazon Channel · ITVX Premium
Rent: Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store · BFI Player
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Rent: Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube · Fandango At Home
Buy: Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube · Fandango At Home
Physical: Amazon US

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