What We Do in the Shadows | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
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Music by | Plan 9 |
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Distributed by | Madman Entertainment (New Zealand & Australia) Unison/Paladin (United States) [1] |
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Running time | 85 minutes [2] |
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Language | English |
Budget | $1.6 million |
Box office | $7.3 million [1] |
What We Do in the Shadows is a 2014 New Zealand mockumentary [3] horror comedy film written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi and the first installment in the What We Do in the Shadows franchise. The film also stars Clement and Waititi, along with Jonathan Brugh, Ben Fransham, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stu Rutherford, and Jackie van Beek. The film's plot concerns several vampires who live together in a flat in Wellington. [4]
What We Do in the Shadows premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. [5] [6] It was released theatrically on 18 August 2014 by Madman Entertainment and received critical acclaim. The film earned $6.9 million on a $1.6 million budget.
A documentary crew follows four vampire housemates—Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Petyr—who share a flat in the Wellington suburb of Te Aro. All of the vampires possess supernatural powers, including levitation and the ability to transform into animals. Viago is a 17th century dandy who originally traveled to New Zealand in the 1940s in search of Katherine, the love of his life; Vladislav is a 12th century former tyrant known as "Vladislav the Poker", who is haunted by memories of his nemesis "the Beast"; and Deacon is a 19th century former peddler and the "young rebel" of the group who was turned into a vampire by Petyr—a reclusive, ancient vampire who behaves like a feral animal and resembles Count Orlok.
Each night, Viago, Vladislav, and Deacon take the bus into town and prowl the streets of Wellington for people to kill. Deacon's human familiar, Jackie, runs errands for the vampires and cleans up the gore left behind by their feeding. A married mother, Jackie hopes to attain immortality, but is frustrated that Deacon will not turn her into a vampire as promised. Deacon requests that Jackie bring virgins to the flat so that the vampires can feed on them. She lures a woman who insulted her in primary school and her ex-boyfriend Nick to the flat. Though neither are actually virgins, the woman is killed, and Nick is chased throughout the flat and manages to get outside, only to be caught by Petyr, who turns him into a vampire.
Two months later, the vampires accept Nick into their group and bond with his human friend Stu, a computer analyst who introduces them to modern technology. Viago uses the Internet to find Katherine, who is now a 96-year-old widow living in a rest home in Wellington, and also briefly reconnects with his old servant Philip.
Despite being able to get his new friends into popular bars and clubs, Nick struggles to adapt to life as a vampire. Nick is also held in contempt by Deacon, who resents Nick's newfound popularity and his careless revealing of his vampirism to strangers he meets. One of these strangers, a vampire hunter, breaks into the flat basement during the day and kills Petyr by exposing him to sunlight.
The vampires are furious when they discover Nick has indirectly caused Petyr's death, and Deacon tries to kill Nick before being interrupted by a police welfare check, but Viago hypnotizes them into not noticing anything out of the ordinary. Once the police leave, Nick is banished from the flat by the remaining vampires, though Stu is permitted to come as he pleases.
Several months later, the vampires receive an invitation to the annual Unholy Masquerade, hosted for the local undead population of vampires, zombies, and witches. Vladislav refuses to attend after learning that "the Beast" will be the guest of honor. When Viago and Deacon arrive at the ball, they find in attendance Nick, Stu and Jackie, the latter of whom has been turned into a vampire by Nick. "The Beast" is revealed to be Vladislav's ex-girlfriend Pauline, and when Stu and the camera crew are discovered to be living humans, the party guests threaten to kill and feed on them. Vladislav arrives and fights with Pauline's new boyfriend Julian. Stu impales Julian on a flagpole, and the vampires and camera crew escape the ball with him, only to encounter a rival pack of werewolves who transform under the full moon. Stu and one of the cameramen are mauled. Believing Stu to be dead, the vampires run away and grieve for him.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Nick returns to the flat with Stu, who reveals he has survived the attack and was transformed into a werewolf. With Stu's urging, the pack visits the vampires along with Stu, and Nick's banishment is rescinded as well. Though momentarily apprehensive, Deacon invites the werewolf pack inside. Viago also reconnects and rekindles his romance with Katherine, whom he turns into a vampire. Scenes during the credits reveal that Vladislav has gotten back together with Pauline, repeating his cycle of self-inflicted torture over his relationship with her; and Jackie's husband is now serving as her familiar. A post-credits scene shows Deacon attempting to hypnotize the audience to forget the events of the film.
The film is based on a 2005 short film—What We Do In The Shadows: Interviews With Some Vampires—written and directed by Waititi and Clement, and starring Jonny Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and Stu Rutherford in their roles of Deacon, Nick and Stu respectively. [10] The feature film adaptation was shot in Wellington in September 2012, and was Waititi's first feature since Boy . [5] [6]
Stu Rutherford, an IT technician and high school friend of Waititi's in real life, was initially told he would only have a bit part in the film so he would act more natural when filming. He did not realise his role was so important until the film's premiere. [11]
According to Waititi and Clement, their favourite vampire films are The Lost Boys , Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview with the Vampire . [12] All of those movies are heavily quoted or referenced in the film, along with many other genre films such as Blade , Twilight and Buffy The Vampire Slayer .[ citation needed ]
What We Do in the Shadows raised $447,000 towards the film from over 7,000 supporters via the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. [13]
The score for the film was composed by Plan 9. [14] The film's opening credits feature the song "You're Dead" by Norma Tanega, after Clement and Waititi were introduced to the song by film editor Tom Eagles. [15] [16] The film's trailer and ending feature the song "Lastochka" by the Russian rock band Leningrad.
The scene where Deacon dances, as Viago and Vlad watch, features a musical piece titled Momil Rano by Iqbal Jogi and Group from the Thar Desert on Indo-Pakistan border. However this musical piece has been credited incorrectly in the movie, where its called Lal Mori Pat. [17]
What We Do in the Shadows was released in a limited release on 13 February 2015 in New York City and Los Angeles, followed by a screening in San Francisco, Irvine, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. [18] The film received a regional release in the U.S. in March 2015, by Unison Films, The Orchard, and Paramount Pictures in association with Funny or Die and Paladin Pictures. [19]
The film was heavily pirated. After the shutting down of a piracy website based in Mount Wellington, Auckland, the website revealed that, at 277,000 downloads, What We Do in the Shadows was one of its most heavily pirated films. [20]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 96% based on 192 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Smarter, fresher, and funnier than a modern vampire movie has any right to be, What We Do in the Shadows is bloody good fun." [21] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [22]
Fearnet called the film "a great vampire comedy". [23] Film School Rejects wrote a predominantly positive review, commenting that some of the film's broader moments fell flat but compared it favorably to similar mockumentaries such as Best in Show . [24] The film was warmly received by UK newspapers, with The Guardian 's film critic Peter Bradshaw describing it as "the best comedy of the year", [25] while The Telegraph 's Tim Robey found it "desperately funny". [9] Film International , in a positive review, commended the film for noting, with a double of Count Orlok locked in the vampires' basement, that the true vampire film tradition is repressed by the current craze. [26] Variety was more critical, writing that "Some genre fans who prefer the silly to the satiric may bite, but the anemic pic isn't remotely weird or witty enough for cult immortality." [14]
The film grossed $5.9 million globally, of which $3.2 million was in the United States of America. [13]
What We Do in the Shadows was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 26 November 2014 by Weltkino Filmverleih.[ citation needed ]
A sequel to the film, focused on the werewolves depicted in What We Do in the Shadows, was in development, but stopped due to some unresolved production issues.[ citation needed ] Originally rumored to be titled What We Do in the Moonlight,[ citation needed ] the working title was later announced as We're Wolves. [27] [28]
In May 2019, Waititi said "'We're Wolves' is the film that Jemaine and I keep pretending that we're making. Every couple of years we say, we're making this new film called 'We're Wolves' which follows the werewolves from the film. I feel bad to even mention it now because we keep saying it, [but] it's like a dad saying, 'Yeah, I'll be home for Christmas.' I suppose we're just two dads out on the road enjoying our lives and going, 'We're not coming home for Christmas. We'll send a postcard. It's not like we don't want to come home for Christmas. We would like nothing more but we have a lot of shit going on. When are you going to die? Do you have a deadline before your death? I guarantee it before then. Five years, ten years? It took us seven years to write the [first] film, so you do the math. That was a sad thing to say." [29]
In 2005, Waititi and Clement wrote and directed a short film titled What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires, which was a precursor to the feature-length film. The short stars Jonny Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and Stu Rutherford in their roles of Deacon, Nick and Stu respectively.
In June 2014, Waititi, in conjunction with Discover New Zealand, produced a promotional short film titled Vampire's Guide to Vellington, in which he reprises his role as Viago von Blitzenberg. [30] [31]
Waititi and Clement revealed plans in September 2016 for Wellington Paranormal , a procedural comedy series based on officers O'Leary and Minogue, minor characters in the film. [32] Series producers granted Waititi and Clement $1 million to produce six 30-minute episodes for the series, which first aired on TVNZ 2 on 11 July 2018. [32] [33] [34] The character Nick from the film also appeared in the episode "A Normal Night". [35] A fourth and final series aired in 2022.
An American television series was developed from the film. A pilot was ordered by FX, which featured Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén and Mark Proksch. Executive producers of the show include Clement, Waititi, Scott Rudin, Paul Simms, Garrett Basch, and Eli Bush. [36] On 3 May 2018, FX picked up the Waititi-directed pilot, with an order of ten 30-minute episodes which premiered on 27 March 2019. [37] In May 2019, FX renewed the series for a 10-episode second season that debuted in 2020. [38] In May 2020, FX announced that they have renewed the series for a third season. The show's audience grew by 25 percent from season 1 to season 2, with average viewing at about 3.2 million. [39]
Flight of the Conchords are a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's comedy and music became the basis of the self-titled BBC radio series (2005) and, subsequently, the HBO American television series (2007–2009). Most recently, they released the HBO comedy special Live in London in 2018. The special was concurrently released by Sub Pop as their fifth album.
Jemaine Atea Mahana Clement is a New Zealand actor, comedian, musician, and filmmaker. He has released several albums with Bret McKenzie as the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, and created a comedy series of the same name for both the BBC and HBO, for which he received six Primetime Emmy nominations.
Taika David Cohen, known professionally as Taika Waititi, is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor and comedian. He is known for directing quirky comedy films and has expanded his career as a voice actor and producer on numerous projects. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award, as well as two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
Yana Gorskaya is a Russian-American director, producer and film editor. She is best known for her work as Director and Executive Producer of the TV series What We Do in the Shadows (2019) and her work in the editorial departments of nearly all of director Taika Waititi’s films, including Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016),Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Jojo Rabbit (2019) and the feature version of What We Do in the Shadows (2014).
Garrett Basch is an American film and television producer. He is best known for his work on the Emmy-winning series The Night Of and What We Do in the Shadows.
Natasia Charlotte Demetriou is an English-Cypriot actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She is best known for her roles as Nadja in the FX comedy horror series What We Do in the Shadows (2019–present) and Sophie in the Channel 4 sitcom Stath Lets Flats (2018–2021).
Chelsea Jane Winstanley is a New Zealand film producer. She produces short films and documentaries which celebrate Indigenous peoples. She also produced the films What We Do in the Shadows and Jojo Rabbit.
Jonathan Brugh, also known as Jonny Brugh, is a New Zealand comedian, actor, and musician. He is best known for his work in What We Do in the Shadows (2014). In the 1990s he was part of the comic duo Sugar and Spice.
What We Do in the Shadows is an American comedy horror mockumentary television series created by Jemaine Clement, first broadcast on FX on March 27, 2019. The series follows four vampire roommates on Staten Island and stars Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén, Mark Proksch, and Kristen Schaal.
Wellington Paranormal is a New Zealand mockumentary comedy horror television series which first aired on 11 July 2018 on TVNZ 2. The series is a spin-off of the 2014 film What We Do in the Shadows and first television series in the franchise, and its lead characters—Officers Minogue and O'Leary—first appeared in the film as a pair of incurious police officers.
The What We Do in the Shadows franchise consists of New Zealand and American mockumentary horror-comedy installments including one limited-theatrical film, a number of short films, two spin-off television series, and one digital series. Created by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, the plot concerns several vampires who live together in shared accommodation, who are followed by a documentary film crew.
Kura Leigh Forrester is a New Zealand comedian, actor and writer. In 2019, she won the Billy T Award for best emerging comedian, for her show Kura Woulda Shoulda. She formerly appeared as core cast member Desdemona Schmidt on prime-time soap opera Shortland Street.
Taika Waititi is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor and comedian. Waititi began his film career in the early 2000s by directing short films. His short film Two Cars, One Night (2003) got him an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film. His first feature film, Eagle vs Shark, was released in 2007. Waititi's second film, Boy (2010) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.
Time Bandits is an upcoming fantasy adventure television series created by Jemaine Clement, Iain Morris, and Taika Waititi, based on the 1981 film of the same name directed by Terry Gilliam.
"Pilot" is the series premiere of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by series creator Jemaine Clement, and directed by executive producer Taika Waititi, both of whom worked as writers and directors of the film. It was released on FX on March 27, 2019.
"City Council" is the second episode of the first season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by executive producer Paul Simms, and directed by series creator Jemaine Clement. It was released on FX on April 3, 2019.
"Manhattan Night Club" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by co-executive producer Tom Scharpling, and directed by series creator Jemaine Clement. It was released on FX on April 17, 2019.
"The Trial" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by series creator Jemaine Clement, and directed by executive producer Taika Waititi. It was released on FX on May 8, 2019.
"Ancestry" is the tenth episode and season finale of the first season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. The episode was written by series creator Jemaine Clement, co-executive producer Stefani Robinson, co-executive producer Tom Scharpling, and executive producer Paul Simms, and directed by executive producer Taika Waititi. It was released on FX on May 29, 2019.
"Nouveau Théâtre des Vampires" is the tenth episode and season finale of the second season of the American mockumentary comedy horror television series What We Do in the Shadows, set in the franchise of the same name. It is the twentieth overall episode of the series and was written by co-executive producer Sam Johnson, executive producer Stefani Robinson, and executive producer Paul Simms, and directed by producer Kyle Newacheck. It was released on FX on June 10, 2020.