The trailer for What We Do in the Shadows starts off like the same trailer we see every three months: a dramatic musical buildup in a strategically-darkened, run-down house that ends with a haunting image. Sometimes, it's a scary looking girl. Sometimes, it's what seems to be the result of an acid-trip-gone-wrong. And sometimes, it's a killer mirror (seriously).
All of my preconceived notions of cookie-cuter horror flicks came to mind, and I mentally checked out from watching the trailer. I even started scrolling on the side of YouTube for something else to watch. But then, the music subsided and the floating body that we so ominously glimpsed is seen from another angle. And it's vacuuming. That's when some of the dialogue kicks in and it becomes clear that this isn't another rehashed, money-grabber of a film, but rather a type of movie that has been slowly disappearing over the years: the mockumentary!
I won't ruin too much of the trailer, because it's quite good, but the premise of the movie is as follows: Three vampires are living together in a Wellington flat for hundreds of years. Life has moved on, but they (and specifically, their wardrobes) haven't kept up. When a new vampire starts bragging at some nightclubs about his vampirical nature, the three old-schoolers are worried. This new guy brings about a world of problems, but with him also comes some much needed change.
Starring Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), Taika Waititi, and Jonathan Brugh, and directed by Clement and Waititi as well, What We Do in the Shadows looks like it will deliver a much-needed breath of fresh air into a genre that has been playing dead for too long. Look for it to hit theaters June 12, 2014.
Soon as I saw Jemaine, plus “Murray” from Flight of the Conchords as a werewolf, I was in. Thanks for the fangs-up!