What We Do in the Shadows Lead Blog Post
I first saw What We Do in the Shadows on a Friday evening in 2015 with three other of my friends and my parents at a small local movie theater. We had an idea that it would be a simple vampire comedy. Oh boy, were we wrong. We took our seats in the small theater that resided up a flight of stairs and what appeared on the screen in front of us was, to be quite frank, quite unexpected. We were treated to one of the most hilarious movies we had ever witnessed. My parents sat in the row behind my friends and me with looks of mixed giddiness due to the humor in the film, but also slight horror due to the somewhat vulgar nature of parts of the film and fears of my friends' parents never trusting their children with my parents again (which luckily was not the case). Ever since first viewing this absolute masterpiece of comedy, my friends and I quote the movie often and never resist the opportunity to spread the movie to new people. So I am carrying on this tradition and introducing this FYW to What We Do in the Shadows.
The movie follows a "mockumentary" style, sort of like The Office but in a full movie sense. One of the writers and actors directed the Marvel move Thor:Ragnarok and another featured as the giant crab, Tamatoa, in Moana. It focuses on a small group of vampires sharing a house in Wellington, New Zealand. The vampires' names are Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr and we see their night-to-night activities. The movie is not actually rated, but it would almost definitely be R-rated if it did as there are around two scenes really involving blood and there is a fair amount of vulgar language. These are almost necessary though as they are used cleverly to intensify the humor of the situation.
The movie uses a fair amount of incongruity humor which makes sense as these are incredibly old vampires and so some of the things they say and do are very surprising. One such example arises when the housemates are bickering over chores and one vampire, who is around 800 years old, suggests that they should get some slaves. Marie Collins Swabey suggests that part of what makes incongruity so funny is the level of inappropriateness with which it brings to a situation. In a society where slavery is rightfully frowned upon, some might suggest to hiring housekeepers. However this loses some of the effect as one would almost expect somebody to suggest this. The movie suddenly flips our anticipation on its head and slaps us with an unexpected, but hilarious, line.
Part of what makes the movie so funny is seeing the world move around them while they remain the same. They have to be invited into places so when they try to find victims at night clubs, they try, to no avail, to get the bouncers to invite them in. This ends with them always ending up at an empty, vampire-run club. They are very unsuccessful typically due to the fact that they really are just so old. Some relief humor, mostly based around characters resolving conflicts with each other in housing arguments, and some superiority, in one instance watching a new vampire vomit profusely after eating a French fry, are found. However, the main source of comedy comes from my personal favorite form, incongruity.
Overall, I find What We Do in the Shadows to be one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. The jokes come fast and often and I feel as though they almost all land. Hopefully you, the reader and viewer, feel the same!
The movie follows a "mockumentary" style, sort of like The Office but in a full movie sense. One of the writers and actors directed the Marvel move Thor:Ragnarok and another featured as the giant crab, Tamatoa, in Moana. It focuses on a small group of vampires sharing a house in Wellington, New Zealand. The vampires' names are Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr and we see their night-to-night activities. The movie is not actually rated, but it would almost definitely be R-rated if it did as there are around two scenes really involving blood and there is a fair amount of vulgar language. These are almost necessary though as they are used cleverly to intensify the humor of the situation.
The movie uses a fair amount of incongruity humor which makes sense as these are incredibly old vampires and so some of the things they say and do are very surprising. One such example arises when the housemates are bickering over chores and one vampire, who is around 800 years old, suggests that they should get some slaves. Marie Collins Swabey suggests that part of what makes incongruity so funny is the level of inappropriateness with which it brings to a situation. In a society where slavery is rightfully frowned upon, some might suggest to hiring housekeepers. However this loses some of the effect as one would almost expect somebody to suggest this. The movie suddenly flips our anticipation on its head and slaps us with an unexpected, but hilarious, line.
Part of what makes the movie so funny is seeing the world move around them while they remain the same. They have to be invited into places so when they try to find victims at night clubs, they try, to no avail, to get the bouncers to invite them in. This ends with them always ending up at an empty, vampire-run club. They are very unsuccessful typically due to the fact that they really are just so old. Some relief humor, mostly based around characters resolving conflicts with each other in housing arguments, and some superiority, in one instance watching a new vampire vomit profusely after eating a French fry, are found. However, the main source of comedy comes from my personal favorite form, incongruity.
Overall, I find What We Do in the Shadows to be one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. The jokes come fast and often and I feel as though they almost all land. Hopefully you, the reader and viewer, feel the same!
I will have to put this one on my list. I vaguely remember it coming out. Jermaine Clement, who was Tomatoa, was one half of flight of the concords, which was kind of like the New Zealand version of Tenacious D. They had a really funny HBO show for awhile.
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