Blu-ray Release: What We Do in the Shadows

By John Corrado

Last week, Video Service Corp released What We Do in the Shadows on Blu-ray.  Shot as a mockumentary, the comedy follows Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), Viago (Taika Waititi), Deacon (Jonny Brugh) and Petyr (Ben Fransham), and the newly transformed Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), a group of flatmates in New Zealand who happen to be vampires.

I wanted to like this one more than I actually did.  Although bafflingly praised by many critics and audiences, even winning the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award at TIFF last year over some far superior titles, What We Do in the Shadows plays like a mildly amusing comedy sketch that has been needlessly stretched to feature length.

The narrative is pretty loose and the production often feels amateurish, with much of the largely improvised humour seeming overly broad and juvenile.  The film offers a particular brand of macabre silliness that just isn’t really my cup of tea, but there are a lot of people out there who will enjoy this sort of thing, and fans should nonetheless be delighted with the pretty decent quality of this Blu-ray release.

The Blu-ray includes deleted scenes, character interviews, a couple of photo and poster galleries, several promotional spots, as well as some other video extras.

What We Do in the Shadows is 86 minutes and rated 14A.