Good, but never reaches its full potential

Rating: 7/10 (10 February 2015)

There's a filthy, lived in authenticity to the afterlives of the vampires who serve as the subjects of What We Do in the Shadows, the New Zealand comedy-horror mockumentary from writers-directors Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. If you're at all familiar with these names then you've had your ear to the ground of the irreverent indie comedy circuit of the past decade. Clement is one half of the popular HBO musical- comedy duo Flight of the Conchords and Waititi has enjoyed critical success with his films Boy and Eagle VS Shark, the latter of which Clement co-starred in. Their unique comedic voices seem like a perfect fit to bring a strange project like What We Do in the Shadows to a niche audience but breaking through to the mainstream may prove difficult.
What We Do in the Shadows introduces its simple premise at the start: a documentary crew has been granted access to film the lives of four New Zealand-based vampires in the months leading up to the annual Unholy Masquerade Ball. Waititi stars as the group's defacto leader, the delightful dandy, Viago. He shares a house with Vladislav (Clement) – a centuries old count in the vein of Dracula, Deacon – a relatively young vampire and self-described "wild card" of the group, and Petry – an 8,000 year old abomination that pays homage to Nosferatu's Count Orlok with his grotesque appearance and preference to hiss and growl rather than deliver dead-pan observations on his night-to-night lifestyle. Viago, Vlad, and Deacon are fun to hang out with, especially when there's a squabble over chores (dishes gone unwashed for five years), but it's Petyr who steals every scene simply by sitting there looking hideous and out of place.
A monkey wrench is thrown into the gears when a potential victim, Nick (played by Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), is instead turned vampire by Petyr and moves in with the group. There's a general dislike for the newcomer by our undead heroes and the film uses that as its principle plot thread. But there's much more to What We Do in the Shadows including a subplot about Deacon's female servant who longs for eternal life, Viago's long lost love of his youth, Vladislav's cuckolding at the hands of his greatest nemesis referred to only as "The Beast" and the added confusion of Nick's best friend Stu, a human the entire gang likes a whole lot more than Nick. Throw into this a rival group of werewolves and the Undead Masquerade Ball we've been teased and you'd think, "this sounds like one hell of a movie!" That's what I thought going in, but there are myriad issues with the whole of What We Do in the Shadows.
The numerous subplots in this film tend to unfold in a linear fashion which immediately made me wish I was watching a television series based on this very movie where self-contained episodes could explore these interesting ideas more thoroughly. That the entire cast of characters is so interesting actually works against the overall plot of the film which ultimately becomes less interesting and unsatisfying just for taking us away from what we want to see in an effort to usher the film along. In short, I want to get to know more of these characters and the movie just won't allow it.
Of course, the biggest issue with What We Do in the Shadows has more to do with unfulfilled promise. There are some incredible sight gags (vampires fighting in mid-flight, over the top gore that recalls Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and a lot of hilarious make-up and character designs), but most of the traditional setup and punchline jokes fall flat. There aren't any groaners here but I didn't find myself belly laughing at a single joke in this film and, for a comedy, that's disappointing. Often times I find myself nodding and thinking, "Oh, I can see why that's funny," but that doesn't really count as being legitimately funny; there are more echoes of comedy in What We Do in the Shadows than actual comedy.
Still, with its imaginative visuals and fascinating characters, What We Do in the Shadows is certainly worth visiting, if only to see it firsthand and wonder what might have been. I'm not accusing anyone involved with this film of incompetence or lack of ability; just the opposite, in fact. What We Do in the Shadows is a hair under 90 minutes long, the perfect length for your standard comedy. But there's nothing standard about this film and it may have benefited from padding its run- time so as to more fully flesh out these characters and the world they inhabit. Better yet, as mentioned before, I'd have loved to watch this film unfold over several 20-minute episodes on cable. There's no use being angry at Clement and Waiti for the missed potential of What We Do in the Shadows. After all, they're only human.