What We Do in the Shadows

If Twilight made you queasy and Dark Shadows felt like a missed opportunity, this pitch-perfect genre spoof is worth relishing.

I'm so sick of vampires I'd have pounded a stake into my own heart not to have to watch this, but it turns out to be a pitch-perfect spoof of MTV's The Real World and a sly satire on millennial slackerdom.

The New Zealand-made art comedy What We Do in the Shadows is a bracing reminder of how the right burst of energy and style breathes fresh ideas into a genre threatened with creative exhaustion.

If we see two or three more comedies this year that know what they're doing the way this one does, it'll be a very good year indeed.

Maybe it's something in the water Down Under, but these fellows have managed to concoct a whole new perspective on fangsters.

Darkly, edgily funny, the mockumentary about four nocturnal, bloodsucking flat-mates in Wellington, New Zealand reduced me to a quivering laugh zombie. It's MTV's Real World meets Hammer Horror with a nod to Christopher Guest.

Manages not only to be hilarious in its own right, but also offers plenty of gags that will resonate even more strongly with horror fans.

It is the kind of content we came to expect from director-writer-actor Taika Waititi.

Rarely does the movie miss a beat, and its cleverness shows itself in a host of ways. It's subtly subversive, subtly satirical, and openly absurd.

What We Do in the Shadows walks—or hovers over—a darker edge, and that makes it funnier and aimed less toward mainstream audiences and more toward cult crowds.