Waititi and Clement's well-earned place in the classic horror pantheon

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2019)

I watched my first horror films during the Nixon era, and over the ensuing years got so sick of vampires and werewolves and horror comedy in general that by the time this came along I ignored it. I only got interested after finding out that one of the leads played Tamatoa in "Moana" and another directed an Avengers film. There is solid star power in this little movie which lifts it above the ordinary, but everything about it is extremely well done, from story and acting to special effects. Whether or not you find it laugh out loud funny depends on how much you like its "Flight of the Conchords" style bro comedy, but I've always believed that at the heart of the best comedy is good theater, and this is eminently watchable as such.
Where horror parody usually falls down is by not really understanding what it's purporting to be making fun of. WWDITS makes intelligent references to "Nosferatu," "Lost Boys" and Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" (and I'm sure the makers knew WWDITS' English cousin "Being Human" backwards and forwards) but it genuinely has the texture and atmosphere of a Gothic horror piece. The existential absurdity of the vampire's life is confronted in a way most other vampire stories are too busy or shallow to even touch. It also uses the aesthetics of low budget horror in a craftful way that I'd thought had been forgotten decades ago.
I have no hope that the new TV series based on this property will retain the charms of the original. Although Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi are involved as directors and writers, they will definitely be missed in front of the camera.