This very funny mockumentary by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi gets its humor from satire at several levels. One of the funniest is the way What We Do in the Shadows consistently pokes fun at familiar formal aspects of Direct Cinema documentary style. A movie about vampire housemates in New Zealand, the film opens with Viago directly addressing the camera as he guides us around the rooms of house. It’s almost like Little Edie taking us around Grey Gardens. As the film progresses from this opening, we make eye contact with the subjects throughout. And like the Maysles, Clement and Waititi foreground the filmmaking process. At one point, Viago creates a loud mic noise as he tucks in a handkerchief, and at a later emotional moment, Vladislav lunges at the camera to cover the lens. But not content to merely use these conventions in a satirical setting, Shadows goes on to satirize the very presence of the camera and crew. The camera crew becomes the focus of a confrontation when they follow the vampires to the Unholy Masquerade Ball, and they’re even attacked by werewolves later in the film, an act that truly shows the involvement of the documentarians with their subject. The writing and direction throughout Shadows, in its mockery of Direct Cinema conventions, satirizes how seriously the style takes itself.
The directors also get a lot of humor from the traditional comic trope of using an outsider viewpoint of the everyday. The vampires here have to deal with a roommate who hasn’t done dishes…in five years…and the film cuts to a kitchen shot with stacks of blood-stained china. When roommate tempers flare, these housemates shape shift and fly into the air. They also have problems in their love lives, though these problems are unique: the object of Viago’s affection is a very old woman now because his servant sent his coffin to the wrong international destination, and Vladislav has lost some of his power because he’s still unsettled by his conflict with The Beast, who we later learn is a previous girlfriend. We also watch them learn to use the internet, text, navigate the rivalries that arise in their friendships, and find ways to dig at each other. Nick, for example, makes Jackie into a vampire to get at Deacon by taking away his familiar.
Clement and Waititi also get humor from vampire lore. The silver locket his love has unwittingly chosen for him burns Viago when he puts it on, but he does so anyway as a testimony to their love. When Peyter is exposed to sunlight and burns, there are several gags about a barbeque smell. One witty sequence describes the problems of dressing for going out when you don’t have a reflection, and once you’re out, you can’t go into a club unless you’re invited in. And there are more than a few references to Nosferatu.
What We Do in the Shadows is a very funny movie. The humor doesn’t always aspire to grand statements or observation, but its incisive wit is a delight. And the sponsorship of The New Zealand Documentary Board suggests there is even a worthwhile genre critique at the base of the film.
