Wonkette Movie Night: What We Do In The Shadows
'I think we drink virgin blood because it sounds cool. If you are going to eat a sandwich, you would just enjoy it more if you knew no one had fucked it.'
Those of us who have had roommates know they can seem like blood sucking vampires who forget to do their share of the chores. This group of roommates just happens to be actual blood sucking vampires.
Created by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, What We Do In The Shadows is a unique take on the vampire genre that takes irreverent swipes at the theme. Shown through the eyes of a mockumentary film crew, it is the story of the undead but ordinary life of four vampires in modern times. Vladislav, Viago, Deacon, and Petyr all share an apartment in the New Zealand town of Wellington. An excellent spin off is Wellington Paranormal featuring the officers who appear in the movie. I dug up a free version of the first episode for you!
The vampires deal with the annoyances of having roomies, like whose turn it is to wash the dishes and who needs to be more careful with arterial spray from their victims as it leaves a mess and stains the upholstery. They have the help of Jackie for clean up, a “familiar,” a human servant who hopes to be turned into one of the fanged friends.
They long to be more in touch with the modern world. They make friends with a regular Joe named Stu, a human they like as a human, a real cool guy. Stu works in IT and introduces them to the world wide web. So if you’re conversing with a creepy, soulless, vile-spewing troll it’s probably MAGA because vampires are much nicer than that.
In this world of real life vampires; zombies, witches, and werewolves also exist. Like the fans of two sports teams in the same state, vampires and werewolves don’t like each other very much. When our roommate vampires meet a pack, with the slap of a glove they face off in a challenge. But werewolves are polite, with the leader reminding the pack that they are
“Werewolves not swearwolves.”
Even though they are polite in human form, werewolves change into raging beasts that want to kill humans. Possibly the humans that the vampires have given their protection to, including the film crew and maybe even a cool guy. A bite from either supernatural being turns you into one of them. If given a choice in becoming part of a group of monsters and fiends, I think being bitten is better than slapping a red baseball cap on your head.
What We Do In The Shadows is available for free on the Internet Archive. Available to rent for $2.69 - $3.99.
What We Do In The Shadows stars Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jonny Brugh, Stuart Rutherford, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, and Jackie van Beek. Directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement.
What We Do In The Shadows is also a long running and hilarious series, using the same theme, four vampires living together. But it adds to the humor by dropping them on Staten Island. On my Substack we are now watching the third season in my Series Sundays club. Anyone can join!
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.
The animated short is Vampire Gastelbrau created by Hannah Ayoubi while at CalArts.
Our next Movie Night selection, The Devil’s Backbone kicks off our 4th Annual Wonktober Frightfest. Find movie availability info here:
Farmer’s Market tomatoes are beautiful and delicious. Couldn’t get this in NY. green tomatoes for frying. I didn't not touch up the color on that, it really is that bright of a green and red. I love tomatoes so this is something I have been missing. this is the good stuff
https://substack.com/@ziggywiggy/note/c-160672200?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2knfuc
𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀:
They lost a charred, polystyrene skeleton/body during the shoot, after throwing it in the harbor for a funeral scene (the scene didn't end up in the film), and not realizing it was drifting away. Taika Waititi commented on the situation saying, "It was quite realistic looking, so we had to put a press release out saying that if anyone finds this charred body washed up on a beach, don't be alarmed, it's just a prop".