Oct. 27, the Film Club screened the hilarious mockumentary,
What We Do in the Shadows
, for students and parents in the Bradford Auditorium. The film depicts a world in which, every few years, a secret New Zealand society gathers for a very special event — The Unholy Masquerade, with vampires, warlocks, and zombies meeting up to celebrate life, death, and the afterlife.
What We Do in the Shadows
documents the months leading up to one such masquerade by focusing on four vampire housemates. Apparently financed by “The New Zealand Document Board”, we’re told that the filmmakers wore crucifixes and were granted protection from the film subjects. And then we’re introduced to the vampires in question, a group thrown together by necessity rather than by choice.
Viago (Taika Waititi) is our host, a 379-year-old dandy who travelled to New Zealand for love some 60 years prior, only to have his heart broken when he finally arrived. He’s romantic and sensitive, the kind of killer who wants to make sure his victim has a nice night out before taking their life. At 183-years-old, Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) is the baby of the group — a rebellious bad-boy who dabbled in Nazism before fleeing to Wellington. Deacon spends much of his time taking advantage of his “familiar,” a servant to whom he promised eternal life but has no intention of giving. Vladislav (Jemaine Clement) is 862-years-old and, having grown up in the torture-filled Middle Ages, somewhat of a pervert, earning himself the nickname “Vlad the Poker.” Previously able to hypnotize large crowds of people, Vlad’s power has dwindled over the years, making him a somewhat forlorn shadow of his former self. And finally, there’s Petyr (Ben Fransham), who at 8,000-years-old is very much the head of the household. Nosferatu-like in appearance, he’s a vampire of few words, but is very much the deadliest of them all.
The men have each lived incredible lives many times over, which makes the boredom of their current day-to-day existence hilarious, especially when immortality has resulted in the guys existing in a state of arrested development, bickering like children over the ordinary and mundane. The early scenes, which revolve around arguments about paying the rent and doing the dishes, suggests that the reality for vampires is a lot more tedious and uneventful than movies like
Dracula
and
The Lost Boys
suggest. As a result, a night of clubbing for the guys is usually ruined because the local bouncer refuses to invite them in, and while a stand-off with a pack of werewolves promises violence, instead the argument ends with a somewhat pathetic exchange of indignant words.
Around this time, Petyr inexplicably turns human Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) into a vampire, and Nick joins the gang under the condition that he can bring along his human roommate Stu. Over time, Nick and Stu introduce the ancient vampires to the 21st century, teaching them about Skype, Google, text messages, and showing them videos of sunrises and pictures of virgins.
The Unholy Masquerade becomes the focus of the film towards the end, more specifically on a confrontation between Vladislav and “The Beast” — the ball’s guest of honor and a creature that previously defeated Vlad in humiliating fashion.
The film is emotionally charged, which is impressive for a film that largely consists of actors telling childish jokes in bad Eastern European accents. But the cast sells the material so wholeheartedly that you genuinely start to care about the characters, even monosyllabic Stu. The film should also be praised for its technical achievements, with an inventive chase scene, the creature effects simple but effective, and the violence wholly believable, with the reality of vampire kills presented in surprisingly horrific fashion, though often ending with a joke. All of these elements make for a hysterical comedy-horror that’s filled with characters that you want to spend time with, and which somehow manage to say something new about this cliched sub-genre.
