'What We Do in the Shadows' (2014) is a mockumentary film directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. It revolves around a group of vampires living together who each have difficulties coping with the modern world in some way, and a newly-turned vampire who is trying to adapt to this new culture, making mistakes along the way.

Mockumentaries, also sometimes called Docucomedies, are a genre of film that is based around a fictitious story, but represents it all through the lens of a factual documentary, often commenting on culture and/or history at the time. What We Do in the Shadows does not contain these comments and is very clearly meant solely for comedic purposes. The way the movie has been filmed gives a definite feeling of a documentary with it's hand-held camera shaking, mistakes in framing and strange angles as opposed to the perfection of Hollywood cinema, creating a feeling very different from most films and certainly the vast majority of comedies as they commonly feature very boring and flat framing. On top of this, the viewer feels as though they are being allowed into a sub-culture due to the constant mentioning of the cameraman being human, yet allowed to film the private lives of vampires.


All of the characters feel very much like charicatures of what a vampire should be, frequently making mistakes that should be clear, or a very memorable moment being Viago (Taika Waititi), being a clean-freak and having lured a woman into his house to feed on, he spends an extortionately long amount of time laying down towels while conversing with her, only for him to accidentally bite her in artery, causing her blood to spurt all over the room. This level of silliness is ongoing throughout the entire film, while still being addressed as being a documentary, causing this comedy to feel very new and refreshing from the norm.