Tag: what we do in the shadows

What We Do it the Shadows: the best horror comedy of the decade

CategoriesFeature, MoviesPosted on

There are vampires in New Zealand, and their biggest problem is fitting in. That is according to the movie What We Do in the Shadows anyway.

Jemaine Clement
Jemaine Clement

I only discovered What We Do in the Shadows by happenstance. I’d heard of the movie via its trailers and posters but What We Do in the Shadows never got much of a buzz so I didn’t seek it out. Then, when I saw it pop-up on-demand I thought the poster was so, well, odd I didn’t rent it then either. It doesn’t help that the title of the movie What We Do in the Shadows sounds slightly risqué.

In fact, I only watched it last winter when I was flipping around the dial one Saturday night and caught it from the middle. The part I began watching has one vampire dying in a “freak” sunlight accident and I immediately knew what I was seeing was either going to be genius or crap — it’s exactly the same way I felt when I caught my first episode of the UK version of The Office randomly on TV. And like The Office, What We Do in the Shadows is pure brilliance.

Co-written, co-directed and co-starring Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi (director of the upcoming Thor 3 movie) and also starring Jonny Brugh and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, What We Do in the Shadows is about a group of vampires who share a home in Wellington, New Zealand and have problems. Most of their problems are related to the fact that even the youngest of them is a few hundred years old and they just don’t get our modern society.

They’re ancient vampires with modern problems like housecleaning that involves a lot of blood, but cleaning those hard to reach places is so much easier when you can fly.

Jemaine Clement, Jonny Brugh & Taika Waititi
Jemaine Clement, Jonny Brugh & Taika Waititi

Shot documentary style, in What We Do in the Shadows the vampires argue over who’s going to do the dishes that have been sitting in the sink for five years and when they should put down paper in order to keep spraying blood off the couch.

Enter new vampire Nick (Gonzalez-Macuer) who’s much cooler than the other vampires and can get into all the hot clubs and show them how to get along in modern society. But when vampire Deacon (Brugh) feels slighted since he used to be the cool one of the group and chases Nick off, it’s a question of whether or not Vladislav (Clement) or Viago (Waititi) want to go back to their old ways and leave things like eBay and their cell phones behind.

Even though What We Do in the Shadows uses the tried and true fauxcumentary technique that’s so popular these days, I think what makes the movie work so well are the characters. All of the characters feel like, err…, real vampires who aren’t the typical evil bloodsuckers but have their own quirks and personalities.

Taika Waititi
Taika Waititi

Virgo is a “bit of a dandy” who when slighted is likely to take a glove out and slap someone. Vladislav is probably the most stereotypical vampire of the bunch with his slavic accent and Gary Oldman style Dracula (1992) costumes but he’s lost his mojo after a defeat by “The Beast” that left him reeling. And Deacon is so self-centered he can’t even see what an asset Nick is to the group.

And when “The Beast” is revealed at the end of the movie it’s so hilariously true that I’m sure many of us have also fought “The Beast.”

Honestly, ever since I saw that first showing of What We Do in the Shadows I’ve watched the movie again and again about four times. I laugh every time I watch it and always catch something new.

Reading up it seems like What We Do in the Shadows only made about $7 million at the box office which is bad. The good news is that the movie did well enough and has gotten such a good word of mouth that a sequel, this time about the werewolves of What We Do in the Shadows titled We’re Wolves might be in the works and another spin-off TV series as well.

Direct beam comms #2

CategoriesComic Books, Direct Beam Comms, Feature, Movies, TVPosted on

TV

How ironic is it that the most interesting character in the Amazon series The Man in the High Castle is a murdering American Nazi family-man dealing with an insurgency and a family medical crisis played by Rufus Sewell? And that’s not to knock anyone else on High Castle — that’s just that Sewell’s character of John Smith is the best thing in a good series!

 

I’ve been thinking about the TV series Babylon 5 lately and there’s a reason for that. I’ve been going through my old comic collection and pulling aside issues that have some meaning to me — the first comic book I ever remember paying my own money for, ones with amazing story and art, ones that I had to seek out… — and at the same time was pulling non-comic things out of my long boxes. Some of what I moved were a few issues of a short-lived magazine called sci-fi Invasion! by Wizard from late 1990s. Looking through those magazines what was top of mind back then was Star Wars because of the then upcoming prequels, The X-Files, Star Trek and Babylon 5.

What’s interesting is that there’s a new Star Wars movie and TV series out now, a new The X-Files series that starts in a few weeks and a new Star Trek movie next year and talk of a new Trek TV series too. But as for Babylon 5, that one’s mostly forgotten.

Well, kind’a forgotten. There are DVD sets for the series but that’s about it. Babylon 5 isn’t available in hi-def nor for purchase or streaming online and as far as I’m aware isn’t playing on syndication anywhere. Which is totally odd in a time where sci-fi is king and there’s this 110 episode series that’s just sitting out there somewhere that many fans of the genera are unaware of.

Batman vs Superman vs Wonder Woman vs Ash vs Evil Dead poster
Batman vs Superman vs Wonder Woman vs Ash vs Evil Dead poster

Even when Babylon 5 was new it was second-fiddle to the Star Trek series that were also airing at the same time. Where I lived new episodes Babylon 5 aired Sunday mornings at 8AM. Babylon 5 wasn’t so much as appointment TV as it was a syndicated series local stations could use to plug holes in their schedules, of which our local station must’ve had one Sunday mornings when I was usually sleeping in.

It wasn’t until TNT bought and started reairing the series weekday afternoons, and a more reasonable hour to a college student, that I was finally able to see all the Babylon 5 episodes.

Babylon 5 was good. Like Star Trek it took a season for the series to find its legs but once it did it was enjoyable. Even if many of the themes, storylines and character types are essentially pulled straight from The Lord of the Rings novels.

Regardless, it does make me wonder why Babylon 5 just went away as it were. After TNT reaired the series once or twice and tried rebooting it through a series of TV movies, Babylon 5 in the late ‘90s essentially was gone seemingly for good from TV screens.

Maybe the series was shot on video and can’t easily be converted to hi-def, or maybe it’s something to do with the special effects or who owns the rights to the show is why it’s only ever really been available on DVD? My feeling is that someday someone’s going to see this gem sitting in their vaults and either decide to reair it to great acclaim or reboot it ala classic and modern Doctor Who.

It’s only a matter of time.

Alternate Christmas flicks

Let’s say that you’re tired of the traditional Christmas movies that pop-up on TV every year — I’m lookin’ at you A Christmas Story — and want to switch things up a bit. Here’s a group of movies that all takes place at Christmas-time, but aren’t necessarily Christmas related.

Prometheus (2012): The crew of the spaceship Prometheus arrive at a far off distant planet on December 21, 2093 where they spend the holiday season fighting aliens creatures out to destroy humanity.

Go (1999): In Go, several different stories from soap-opera actors to young 20-somethings selling ecstasy to a trip to Las Vegas all collide during the holiday season.

Batman Returns (1992): This will probably be the only Batman film in history that takes place in a snowy Gotham City during Christmas.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) & Iron Man 3 (2013): Writer/director Shane Black sure must have a thing for Christmas since two of his movies both takes place at that time.

Die Hard (1988): A movie that still holds up nearly 30 years later, Die Hard takes place over one night at a corporate Christmas party gone bad.

Comics

Silver Surfer Epic Collection: Freedom collects many of the early Silver Surfer appearances in the early ’80s, from a story from the Epic Illustrated an a John Byrne one-shot to 14 issues of the Silver Surfer comic released in the late ’80s which started my obsession with this awesome cosmic character.

Movies

I recently discovered the wonderful movie What We Do in the Shadows by Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords and Taika Waititi. This movie follows a documentary crew as they film a group of vampires based in Wellington, New Zealand. Think The Office crossed with Interview with a Vampire and that’s what What We Do in the Shadows is. Instead of following the usual vampire tropes, this film instead focuses on vampire “flatmates” who are all several hundred years old and must navigate the Wellington night scene, where they’ve got to be invited into clubs to look for their next meal, and are perplexed by modern conveniences like TV and the internet.
“Yeah some of our clothes are from victims. You might bite someone and then, you think, ‘Oooh, those are some nice pants!’.”

On the Horizon

I’m thinking of writing a column on what exactly Doc Brown knew in the Back to the Future movies which would come out sometime next year but haven’t quite cracked it yet.