#FILMFRIDAYS : WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Year: 2014.

Dir: Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement.

A string of terrible critic reviews and disappointing box office returns have led to the decline of the vampire genre in film and popular culture. A lack of fresh ideas have seen audience and studio executives turn to more interesting and profitable film ventures.

In the past decade or so, these films have told the same tiring story; From clan clashes to forbidden romances, they have asked the same banal questions and come up with variations of the same dull answers.

With a few brilliant exceptions like this one.

Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement both write, direct, and star in this stupendously funny but insightful mockumentary about centuries old vampires living in a flat in mordern day New Zealand. Unlike the typical vampire films which try(and most times fail) to juggle big ideas, Shadows comically explores the small, quotidian struggles of vampires trying to adapt to the requirements of a human society.

We laugh at but also empathize with these well-developed, blood-sucking characters as they try to blend their medieval sensibilities into a technology driven 21st century. I would say it is like “Keeping up with the Vampires” but it is actually vampires trying to keep up with the world.

For a genre criticized for being too grim and too self-serious to be taken seriously, What we do in the shadows is a refreshing and humorous subversion that leads somewhere and actually remembers to enjoy the ride.

P.S: I am a big Taika Waititi fan and you should see his other films. I can’t wait for Thor: Ragnarok.

So Enjoy! (The theme for this month is comedy. Haha. Ha.)

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I talk about films on instagram @txchukwu.