What We Do in the Shadows: Funny tale of hungry but hapless vampires

There’s something about horror and gore on screen that fascinates humans, to the point that each year we even celebrate goblins, ghouls and things that go bump in the night.

Observed under the title Halloween, Hallowe’en, Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve, October 31 is celebrated in several countries and is marked with creatively bizarre costumes and people going from door to door trick or treating.

This period, which can last the entire weekend, also sees cinemas and TV screens bombard viewers with the best that celluloid has to offer in the form of horror flicks – from the mundane B-grade variety to the bigger budget classics.

Natasia Demetriou and Matt Berry in ‘What We Do in the Shadows’. Picture: FX

And just in time for your slasher flick frenzy, Showmax is running the first season of the delightfully absurd and ridiculously fun series, What We Do in the Shadows.

A spinoff of the instant hit film of the same name created in 2014 by comedy geniuses Jemaine Clement (Boris the Animal in Men in Black 3) and Oscar-nominated director Taika Waititi of Thor: Ragnarok, the series is centred on four vampires sharing an apartment in New York.

However, these are not your sexy and massively stylised bloodsuckers from Twilight, Interview with the Vampire or Lady Gaga as The Countess in American Horror Story: Hotel.

‘What We Do in the Shadows’. Picture: FX

These housemates, in addition to holding the knowledge and experience of hundreds of years, are rather dim-witted and clumsy as they traverse New York’s Staten Island.

“These are not the glamorous, glitzy, shirtless vampires that you’ve grown accustomed to,” said series writer Stefani Robinson in an IGN interview.

Needless to say, their stumble-and-learn approach makes for hilarious viewing right from the very first episode.

And to add to the trifling shenanigans of the four friends and their human “familiar”, the series is shot as a documentary with laugh-out-loud off-camera dialogue that pays homage to the quintessentially Jemaine Clement style of writing.

Kayvan Novak and Harvey Guillén in ‘What We Do in the Shadows’. Picture: FX

“It’s about the more mundane practicalities of being a vampire, which I just think is funnier,” adds Robinson.

With 10 episodes, the series features some sensational guest actors that include, among other big names, Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood), Danny Trejo (From Dusk till Dawn), Wesley Snipes (Blade), and Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (Constantine).

But it’s really the housemates, played by Kayvan Novak, Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillén and Mark Proksch who are the true stars and carry the series as if it was made for them.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.