Freddy's 31 Days of Horror Hallow's Eve: Jemaine Clement's and Taika Waititi's What We Do in the Shadows

You know those guys from Flight of the Choncords? They got together and decided to make a mockumentary about a bunch of vampires living together in a flat in New Zealand. The result is not only one of the funniest horror comedies but possibly my favorite comedy to come out last year.

qtjtla3xfs6gdkg9bunjWe have five vampires ranging from ages 300 to 8,000 years old. There's Deacon whose the young bad boy of the group who apparently at one point was a vampire nazi, Viago who is the well to do "dandy" who came to New Zealand to chase after a girl he loved but it took him forever to get there because his servant messed up the postage, Vladislav also known as Vladislav the poker who is from the Middle Ages and loves to torture people and mind control them but unfortunately can't get his powers to work half the time. Finally we have Peter, the 8,000 year old Nosferatu vampire who lives in the basement. They are followed by a documentary crew who has been blessed and allowed to film them and their lives in preparation for a special event honoring the undead that happens every few years called The Unholy Masquerade. In the time leading up to the event Peter accidentally sires a new vampire, a guy named Nick. Nick is completely contemporary and doesn't care about the laws and rules of hiding being a vampire from the public. The whole film deals with vampires living in the flat together and having to deal with chores, getting into clubs by being invited and finding and eating dinner without getting blood all over the nice furniture. Nick brings in another level of complexity as he introduces the vampires to modern technology such as the internet. It's a funny film dealing with these relationships and older ways of life clashing with the present.

what-we-do-in-the-shadowsI really can't do this film enough justice in a simple explanation. You get vampire/werewolf gang wars, you find out why vampires prefer virgins and we even get to see a bat fight between the vampires! One of my favorite scenes is when Nick shows the other guys a YouTube video of the sun rising and they freak out thinking they'd melt, but instead watch it in awe as they haven't seen the sun in hundreds of years. Another great scene is when the vampires are going out but can't see their reflections so they have to draw how they look to each other in order to go out for a night on the town. I simply cannot do this film justice in a simple review, it's one of the funniest movies ever and you should just go watch it immediately.

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Artwork by Jeff Muncy