Trailer Trash Talk: ‘What We Do in the Shadows’
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From: Charlotte Wilder
To: Jeremy Gottlieb
Subject: Re: The Best vampire movie of all time?
The premise of What We Do In The Shadows—that these vampires need “new blood’’ in the apartment and therefore get a new young vampire to move in with them—is perfect. Starting the movie with an established household and then introducing a wild card gives the other characters endless situations to react to. It’s an improv scenario: Keep introducing new elements to keep the plot moving and surprise the audience.
From the trailer alone, I’m expecting a lot of curveballs. I’m also going to look up whether this was actually improvised or not. I seriously hope it was.
From: Jeremy Gottlieb
To: Charlotte Wilder
Subject: The best vampire movie of all time?
The best thing the “Funny or Die’’ dudes (who made the movie) could do was start it with the title card, “From the Creators of ‘Flight of the Conchords.’’’ They sold me right there, because that was one of the funniest shows I can remember watching. So much of what we see on TV and in the movies that’s funny these days is based on the idea of the awkward, misunderstood, always-says-the-wrong-thing-in-the-wrong-company misfit. Flight of the Conchords did that as well as anyone.
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Jemaine Clement always seemed like the one in that show who was blissfully clueless about how odd and out of place he was, and that lent an edge to the dynamic between him and Bret McKenzie, who was always hysterically dumbstruck by everything.
It makes sense that Jemaine seems to be the ringleader of the lunatic vampires in this movie. He is who he is, just like on the show, and that draws more people and more attention to him. Because he’s capable of such self-confidence and completely lacks self-awareness, he’s totally convincing right off the top as the dangerous one, the master of the house.
The guy who wrote and directed with Clement is named Taika Waititi, and he’s just as funny as Clement is. The part where he introduces his 96-year old girlfriend and says, “They want to call me a cradle snatcher, who cares?’’ is a spit-out-your-drink moment.
I’ve laughed every time I’ve watched this. Which is at least five times now. It’s that funny.
From: Charlotte Wilder
To: Jeremy Gottlieb
Subject: Re: The Best vampire movie of all time?
Vampires were hot this past decade, namely one that goes by Edward. But they were sexy, brooding hot. They were dangerous hot. They were supposed to be taken seriously.
This movie takes these vampires and turns them into regular dudes, dudes with the same problems as humans but with a penchant for drinking human blood.
So it turns out that yes, the actors did improvise most of the movie. In an interview with The Wireless, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, who plays the new young vampire Nick, said that the actors “didn’t see a script pretty much the whole time we filmed.’’ Waititi and Clement had written one, but the actors didn’t follow it; instead, they were told the key points they had to cover in each scene and then told to play around with it.
Given the improvisation, the mockumentary style is therefore the perfect way to film. It further normalizes the strangeness of the situation and also makes it endearingly awkward. The Office nailed that style, obviously—the pauses after a character says something they think is funny only to look over and see the person they’re talking to isn’t even slightly amused.
It’s the prevalence of normal moments like that in this trailer (like the scene where one of the vampires is knitting) that makes me want to see this so badly.
From: Jeremy Gottlieb
To: Charlotte Wilder
Subject: Re: The best vampire movie of all time?
Yeah, I like the mockumentary thing too. You’re right about The Office , but don’t forget This is Spinal Tap, which is one of the funniest movies of all time. The conceit never gets old if the people at the helm know what they’re doing.
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I’m hesitant to bring this up because of how perfect the trailer is but I’m a little trepidatious about whether this joke can stand up for an hour and a half. Part of me thinks this is a TV show or at least a sketch on Saturday Night Live (or a “Funny or Die’’ video that you bust out laughing at for 10 minutes, then go about your day). It looks from the trailer like there are some different directions they can go—neighbors calling the cops, running into a gang of werewolves and throwing down—but there is at least some potential here for this to be a one-joke setup and just get stuck.
I don’t think it will—Jemaine is too clever to let that happen (at least I think he is based on what he’s done in the past). But if I start getting restless 20 minutes in, that’s probably not a good sign.
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