Film Review: WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2014)

In general, I don’t particularly care for vampire films.  There are so few that actually have something to say and they’re filled with clichés and things that you’ve seen time and time again and even if the Twilight franchise has watered down their image there are just as many 30 Days of Night films that try to go in the complete opposite way.  Vampire comedies, in my opinion, fit even below the lowest of my expectations which is why it has taken me so long to get around to What We Do In The Shadows (2014).  I had zero interest in this film but due to the overwhelming great critical response to the film I decided to give it a chance and boy am I glad I did. 

The film follows three vampire flat mates – Vladislav, Viago, and Deacon (Jermaine Clement, Taika Waititi, and Jonny Brugh, respectfully) whose lives are turned upside down when they decide to allow a film crew to film their lives as they prepare for the vampire party of the century.  The three vampires are trapped in their own time from when they were turned.  Living in the modern era has left them lost in time, but salvation comes in the form of a newly turned vampire who is up with the modern era but needs a little help with being a good vampire.  

The film crew is given full access to everything and get to see and experience the day to day lives of vampires including their drinking habits, their animosity towards werewolves, and how they deal with vampire hunters.  For a film like this it covers a lot of ground while still being very character driven and funny at the same time.

What makes the film so successful is that the comedy is all character based and not bad jokes sprinkled throughout.  This film could have become a complete parody of itself but writer/directors Clement and Waititi do a great job grounding the film in the zany world of vampires.  Having the style of the film as a documentary goes a long way in allowing the audience to take the film seriously even though it is a comedy.  

I ended up enjoying this film immensely as the story was easy to follow yet presented an almost “traditional” vampire story in a non-traditional way.  It had me entertained from beginning to end and even had some impressive visual FX to go with the story.  This film is one I highly recommend for both comedy and horror fans.

Film Review: HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET (2012)

There are many types of horror films and there is a place for Evil Dead (2012), where the gore hounds get their fill, as well as Twilight (2008), where the lovelorn and romanticized get their vampires and werewolves that are eternal and “twinkle”, but where does a film like House at the End of the Street (2012) lie?  It tries to appeal to the teenage crowd as well as the suspense and horror crowd but fails to deliver on either side.

The film concerns Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) and her mother Sarah (Elizabeth Shue) who has moved into a new town into a home near where a massacred occurred in their neighbor’s house.  Elissa becomes friends with Ryan (Max Thieriot), the only member of the massacred family alive who still lives in the house.  Her mother disapproves of her friendship to Ryan but Elissa sees only a misunderstood man trying to make a living for himself.  The closer Elissa gets to Ryan the more she realizes that he hides a terrible secret buried deep beneath his house that ties back to the night when his family was massacred by his sister.

Horror films really lie within two spectrums – one is the too tame PG to PG-13 films which include Twilight and the remakes of Prom Night (2008) and One Missed Call (2008) and the other are the hard core films like the remake Evil Dead and Hostel (2005) and Saw (2004).  In between you have the few PG-13 films that cross between the two such as Insidious (2010) and Apollo 18 (2011) and Mama (2013).  House at the End of the Street tries to appeal to this middle ground but fails because of its lack of originality (hence why so many remakes have failed over the years) and suspense as well as its failure to deliver any real shocks.

Written by David Loucka (with story by Jonathan Mostow) the film comes off as a by the numbers thriller with no original or new ideas.  The only thing that keeps the film rolling along is director Mark Tonderai who manages to at least keep the film moderately interesting with his directorial choices.  Lawrence seems out of place in this film playing a teenager despite the fact that she doesn’t look at all that young which makes the pairing with Thieriot even odder since they try to make him look older as he plays a college bound character (a far cry from the character he played in Wes Craven’s My Soul to Take).  Thieriot has no chemistry with Lawrence which makes their coupling even less likely.  Shue, who made a return to horror with the remake of Piranha 3D (2010), is wasted here as the mother as very little is given to her to do other than look like the concerned parent.

Overall the film is mediocre and easily forgotten which is probably for the best of everyone especially Lawrence who has her own Twilight-like franchise in The Hunger Games films and I’m sure she’d like this film to be buried deep within her resume.