Shortly after the first weekend that box-office returns came in for "Twilight," a swarm of studio suits rushed to their BlackBerrys and proceeded to greenlight every vampire-related script they could find buried under the cobwebs. Six years on, we've been deluged by more undead movies and TV series that you can shake a crucifix at, and fang fatigue has clearly set in.
This overwrought genre is well past due for parody, and attempting that are Kiwi directors Jemaine Clement (of the HBO comedy series "Flight of the Conchords") and Taika Waititi. Their film, "What We Do in the Shadows," has a certain low-budget indie charm, and operates from a very simple premise: a reality TV-style documentary about four flatmates in Wellington, New Zealand, who happen to be vampires. Straight-to-camera confessional moments about their relationships and griping about whose turn it is to do the dishes are intercut with savage bouts of feasting on human blood.
It's basically "Interview with the Vampire" meets MTV's "The Real World," and if this sounds a bit silly, well, it is. The film often feels like a throwaway "Saturday Night Live" sketch padded out to 90 minutes. The special effects of levitating and changing into bats and such are all a bit naff, but amusingly so.
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