Excellent comedic mockumentary

Rating: 8/10 (25 April 2020)

This review contains spoilers.
What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary comedy movie that premiered in 2014. The movie is directed and written by Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi. The movie stars Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jonathan Brugh, and Ben Fransham. The is about a documentary crew that follows four vampires inside of a house. The movie follows the four vampires as they have nightly adventures in Wellington, New Zealand.
What We Do in the Shadows is an excellent comedy movie. The movie is similar to other mockumentaries such as The Office which follows the characters around. The vampire characters of Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr are incredibly hilarious as they have many misadventures across Wellington. The movie does incredibly well in making the audience care about these characters and the events that occur to them. The movie does not have much a plot much like other mockumentaries and instead has the audience become invested in the characters to tell the story.
The characters are easily the best part of this movie. The side characters and main characters are all played well by the actors and actresses and they have great moments. One of the characters, Nick, is inadvertently turned into a vampire and becomes a character the audience can use to follow how the vampires undergo their rituals. This moment is incredibly funny as Nick has to explore vampirism. In addition, the usage of the vampire powers is played to great comedic effect as the movie plays up the ignorance of humans.
The primary problem with the movie is that overall it does meander. There is no grand story arc in this movie. The movie feels more like an elevated television show however this is not a detractment if the audience knows what they want. The trailers for this movie were not misleading and never hinted at a large story. The movie is a simple story focusing on the vampiric characters.
I would recommend 'What We Do in the Shadows'. This is an excellent movie with great casting and timing on the comedic sequences.
Grade: B