What We Do in the Shadows

Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi grew this from a 2005 short, What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires. Jonny Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer and Stu Rutherford were already Deacon, Nick and Stu in it; the cast has carried them for years. The method sets the rhythm. Clement says the whole film is improvised except one scene, where Viago speaks German to his old servant, which Waititi had to memorise. The werewolf scenes ran about 10 minutes longer than they should have. The shoot finished in Wellington in September 2012; the film reached Sundance only in January 2014, after a year of editing. You hear it: jokes do not land on a beat, scenes run until one arrives and the cut chooses. It opened in New Zealand in June 2014 and could not cross over. A Kickstarter campaign fronted by Clement, backed by more than 7,000 people, paid for American distribution; the release came only in February 2015, in a few New York and Los Angeles cinemas. Two series followed: Wellington Paranormal and the six season FX version. A good fit if you find vampire lore funniest reduced to the washing up rota, the rent and the rule about entering uninvited. Not for anyone who wants written, timed punchlines; these arrive in waves and some never arrive.