What We Do in the Shadows is an independent comedy film withe elements of horror. It is filmed in documentary style and focuses on vampire fiction. The movie was written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi. It was shot in New Zealand and distributed through Unison Films. Clement and Waititi play the roles of vampires Vladislav and Viago respectively, with Jonathan Brugh as Deacon, and Ben Fransham as Petyr. The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19th, 2014. The four vampires share a flat in Wellington and feed off the blood of the living at night, but must also strive to adapt to modern ways, such as watching YouTube videos of sunrises. The ancient Petyr turns a youth named Nick into a vampire, who becomes the neophyte member of their brood. Social conflicts erupt including a standing feud with a troupe of werewolves that stalk their feeding grounds and a masquerade ball that includes zombies and witches.
What We Do in the Shadows is an American television series of the comedy genre, with elements of horror. It is based on the 2014 film of the same name, which was produced in New Zealand. The series was created by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi and began airing on the FX Network on Wednesday evenings at 10:00 pm, beginning on March 27th, 2019. The first season of the show comprised ten episodes. What We Do in the Shadows stars Kayvan Novak as Nandor, Matt Berry as Laszlo Cravensworth, Natasia Demetriou as Nadja, Harvey Guillén as Guillermo, and Mark Proksch as Colin Robinson.
This movie is actually a fully realized re-make of a film short shot in 2005 called What We Do In The Shadows: Interviews With Some Vampires. It was likewise crafted by the team of Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement and also starred Jonny Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and Stu Rutherford, who would all appear in this film as well.
There are a total of forty-six credited cast members in this film.
The movie was shot on-location in Wellington, New Zealand, which is also the principal setting for the film. Scenes of the Unholy Masquerade were filmed at the Victoria Bowling Club at 125 Pirie Street in Mount Victoria.
This movie was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19th, 2014. It was screened at the Stanley Film Festival on April 26th, 2014.
What We Do in the Shadows was released on region free Blu-ray on July 21st, 2015.
There were plans for a sequel film focusing on the werewolf characters, which was to be called We're Wolves, but the project was scrapped due to unspecified production issues.
Trivia[]
The tagline for this movie is "Some interviews with some vampires". This is a fang-in-cheek reference to the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire by author Anne Rice. The book adapted into a feature film in 1994 by director Neil Jordan.
Actor Isaac Heron plays a fix attendant in this film. Actor Ben Fransham, also in this movie, played a character named Heron in 30 Days of Night, which was also about vampires.
