What We Do in the Shadows

"Leave me to do my dark bidding on the internet!"

"What are you bidding on?"

"I am bidding on a table."

A documentary crew are welcomed into the flat of 4 vampires to film their lives.  Viago (Waititi) is 379 and loves order / cleanliness.  Vladislav (Clement) is 862 and used to be an intense and violent vampire, but his powers never recovered after his last battle with the Beast (Stejko).  Deacon (Brugh) is the youngest of the group at 183 and loves being a "sexy" vampire.  Petyr (Fransham) is 8,000 and doesn't speak.  They have lived together for years and deal with the typical roommate issues.

Their lives change unexpectedly when they turn Nick (Gonzalez-Macuer).  Nick doesn't understand their rules, and they don't understand modern life.  He further complicates their lives by bringing his human best friend Stu (Rutherford) into their home and lives.  With their servant Jackie (Van Beek) making demands, run-ins with the local werewolf pack led by Anthon (Darby), and vampire hunters, can the vampires survive?


This mockumentary plays with popular vampire traits / characteristics etc from movies and TV and books.  The script was co-written and directed and starring Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi.  Clement is best known for The Flight of the Conchords (which he co-wrote).  Waititi has directed several films in New Zealand.  While they had an overarching script, most of the performances were ad-libbed.

While Clement and Waititi are hilarious in the roles, the best performance is Jonathan Brugh as Deacon.  He delivers some outrageous lines without breaking and gets some of the most memorable moments.  Cori Gonzalez-Macuer doesn't get to do much, but he does have some interesting stunts and one gross-out gag.  The film is packed with laughs, mostly from the absurdity of the situations and the casts reactions.

Be sure to stay until the end of the credits for a final scene with Brugh's Deacon.

What We Do in the Shadows (2014) 86 minutes
Rating: R for bloody violent content, some sexual material and language
Director: Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi
Starring: Jemain Clement as Vladislav
Taika Waititi as Viago
Jonathan Brugh as Deacon
Cori Gonzalez-Macuer as Nick
Stu Rutherford as Stu
Ben Fransham as Petyr
Jackie Van Beek as Jackie
Rhys Darby as Anton
Elena Stejko as Pauline / the Beast