An Interview With A Vampire

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2015)

Documentaries are a difficult format because they will always, always be criticized, in some format or way someone will find fault with them. That's why it's always better and more fun to make a mockumentary, and this is where we find What We Do In The Shadows, a spoof documentary about a set of vampires in New Zeland who are flat sharing, so I suppose the reel question is will this have me howling From Dusk Till Dawn or will it just feature Lost Boys?
It's an obvious statement to make but vampires have been around a LONG time in cinema, and we have seen many different interpretations of them from Nosferuatu, to the Bram Stoker's Dracula and now modern age of Twilight. They are probably the 3 hall marks of Vampire films, but there are so many more; 30 Days Of Night, Underworld, Daybrakers and Blade are just a few of the movies that people quickly forget that still have vampires as a main feature, and in the past if we are honest with ourselves all we have ever really seen is spoof films of other Vampire movies, The Fearless Vampire Hunters and Darcula Dead And Loving It are two that leap instantly to mind, but that's where What We Do In The Shadows is strongest, because it's not a spoof of another movie, it is it's own film that makes jokes about vampires as a whole and not just one plot strand.
The principle of having a film crew follow vampires around is funny all on it's own but once you start mixing in well thought out characters, jokes that have pace and a story that develops perfectly you get a movie which all on its own can stand up and be counted as classic. The movie is written and directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement.Jemaine is one half of The Flight Of The Concords and Taika is a man who wrote many of the episodes for them as well as chunks of The Inbetweeners. I think that sort of inner madness and logic that is clear in The Flight Of The Concords TV show spills over into What We Do In The Shadows, there are so many off beat unpredictable moments that you can't help but laugh at them all.
It's true I could pull out sections of the film and highlight them as funny but what would be the point in that? However I will give you a small measure of how clever the film is, there is a sequence in which the trio are preparing to go out on the town, however because they have no reflections they have to sketch each other so they can see what outfits work and don't. It's that sort of clever overlooked humour which is imbedded into What We Do In The Shadows.
What We Do In The Shadows is a witty, clever, funny comedy which is far superior to most of the main stream trash we have to suffer in cinemas.