Viago, Deacon, Vladislav and Peter share a house in a New Zealand suburb. Like most housemates, they irritate each other, pushing each others’ buttons over the household chores such as washing the dishes. But, at the end of the day (and it must be the end of the day, when it’s dark), when they go out on the town, they go together. Oh, and they’re vampires. A top-notch mockumentary which balances laugh out loud with distinct creepiness.

Mockumentaries are essentially works of fiction masquerading as serious documentaries and are intrinsically comedic as they are generally criticising, satirising or making fun of something. Spinal Tap (1984) is the usual example that people can name and even quote; “turning it all the way up to 11”. But many would trace the first proper mockumentary back to Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run (1969), the story of Virgil Starkwell, an inept bank robber.

What We Do in the Shadows, is written and directed by Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi. They also found time to star as Vladislav and Viago respectively. Most of the scenes are set within their rather dowdy house which bears traces of their previous victims. Yes, some story elements very briefly lean towards the eerie and disturbing but it is mostly just downright silly; such as the vampires’ childish rivalry with the local gang of werewolves and the taking advantage of their human servants who are only in it to gain eternal life which is continually denied them by the vampires. You can’t help sympathise with these four outcasts, despite them being responsible for regular murders. They miss their human pasts and are greatly limited in ‘life’ in terms of relationships and only being able to go out at night.

This is a great comedy and is one of the earlier directorial works for Waititi who went on to direct Thor: Ragnorok (2017) and Jojo Rabbit (2019) for which he received a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.

Certificate: 15
1 hour 26 min
BBC (free), Prime (£0.99)
Directors: Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi
Cast: Jermaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer