A sign of great things to come ... flawed but funny

Rating: 7/10 (29 March 2019)

I'm late to this party, and seeing it for the first time in 2019 it's easy to see the seeds of what led Taika Waititito get the Marvel gig (and execute it so brilliantly). Amongst all (sub) genres, comedy-horror is one of the hardest to get right; the film needs to be both a proper comedy and also a proper horror movie to really work, and take both genres at face-value. Shaun Of The Dead executes this near flawlessly; What We Do In The Shadows does well, but not quite enough for me. The documentary format - whilst a good joke - means it leans more on the comedy, and hence isn't really horror enough. The horror elements play almost as Hammer at its worst, which may or may not be intentional, but distracts from the nuanced performances. Some of the gags are brilliant - the verbal comedy, the physical, the nods to other films and especially the good natured, self aware fun with the rules and tropes of vampirism. Occasionally it hints towards bigger themes - homophobia, for instance. That would be a good fit; vampire stories are almost always about sex or sexuality in some way. The 'coming out' scene is inspired; the scenes of bullying in the street both funny and moving. But the theme never quite takes the theme far enough; it feels like one of a bunch of ideas thrown at the wall until something sticks. The film lacks an ultimate emotional punch for which it strives, and I'm left with the feeling that the newly-launching spin-off TV series might be the best format for this. It's good, of course, and has much re-watch value and quotability ... but the director had better ahead of him.