In the finest traditions of Christopher Guest’s famed mockumentaries, What We Do in the Shadows (Paramount Home Entertainment, Rated R, $39.99) offers a hilarious look at a quartet of vampires living in a flat in Wellington, New Zealand.
With only a very limited run in U.S. theaters to expose its brilliance to audiences, the 85-minute Blu-ray debut should become a cult-sized hit with fans smitten by the mundane lives of blood-sucking creatures of the night.
Directors, writers and stars Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement hit the humorous horror mark more often than not as their ghouls attempt to cope with modern life while scrutinized within a realty TV format.
My favorite is the ferocious and silent Petyr (8,000 year old) who looks like the nosferatu Count Orlok and sets up resident in the basement.
The others include Deacon (183 years old), a former Nazi who refuses to do the dishes but loves knitting; Vladislav (862 years old), a once powerful and twisted creature practically defanged by an adversary named the Beast; and the mild-mannered Viago (379 years old) who runs the household and enjoys making pottery.
The delightfully dry humor of many situations is worth the occasional belly laugh and plays well with the grotesque.
Take the case of when new vampire Nick eats a french fry and pays a very bloody penalty or when the gang goes to the yearly Unholy Masquerade Ball and mixes it up with witches, zombies and werewolves.
Viewers of the digital transfer must contend with the found-footage-type, documentary-style cinematography, not a huge buying point. However, the extras are abundant making the Blu-ray worth purchasing and will take a decent-sized bite out of a viewer’s time.
First, an optional commentary track with the directors is surprisingly devoid of wit as they methodically discuss the production of the movie, even bringing up how terrible of a job they are doing. Between their heavy New Zealand accents and snickering, it’s sometimes too hard to understand what they are talking about.
Next, a brief, 17-minute, behind-the-scenes look at the film spends most of the time on the practical and special effects, including a victim bleeding out, a werewolf attack and an unusual fight scene.
In the best of the bonus stuff, viewers can watch about an 90-minutes worth of deleted scenes, character interviews and promotions offering plenty of extra laughs.
That group of scenes also includes the directors’ original short film (27 minutes) that acted as a draft for the full-length release.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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