Ancient vampires in the modern world? Give the unfunny action comedy Renfield a miss and head straight to the definitive source: mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. From my 2014 review:
This is, hands down, the absolute most hilarious movie I’ve seen this year. And probably last year and the year before, too. I’m talking the sort of laughter that makes your face ache and your belly cramp up, before you start to cry inexplicable tears, from joy and wonder but mostly in an attempt to reconcile in your head how perfectly perfect a movie can be with being sad that all movies aren’t this good. What We Do in the Shadows — a marvelous title in a sea of generically labeled films — zooms off into utter silliness from its opening moments and never slows down, not even while doing switchbacks into social satire, pop-culture cramdown, and heartfelt pathos.
Directors and stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi deliver nonstop pitch-perfect nuggets of barely exaggerated mundanity that take the romance and mystery that pop culture has created around vampires and destroy them in outrageously funny ways. This is one of those rare perfect movies.
US: rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Prime and BBC iPlayer; rent on BFI Player; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See What We Do in the Shadows at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
