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Episode InfoNandor visits one of his living descendants; a lover from Nadja's past reemerges.
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 8.0 /10 294 Ratings Trailer Directed by Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jackie van Beek & 4 more United States, 2019 TV Series, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror 30 SynopsisA look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of four vampires who’ve lived together for over 100 years, in Staten Island. Share A look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of four vampires who’ve lived together for over 100 years, in Staten Island. Trailer Photos: FX ; Illustration: Dillen Phelps
It’s going to be hard to look at vampires or Staten Island the same way again after the March premiere of FX’s What We Do in the Shadows. Based on the movie by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarock) and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), the series transplants the location, changes up the roles, but maintains the same tone — and Decider got a first hand look at exactly how much work goes into making your new favorite horror mockumentary show. The original 2014 What We Do in the Shadows, a documentary about four vampires who happen to be housemates, quickly became a cult classic. Instead of terrorizing their victims and feasting on the blood of innocents, these vampires are more concerned with arguing about whose turn it is to do the dishes, going to clubs, and picking fights with werewolves (not swearwolves). Five years later, the creative duo is back with a new crop of vampires in the mysterious land of Staten Island, New York. Matt Berry, Natastia Demetriou, and Kayvan Novak play Lazlo, Nadja, and Nandor, three vampire roommates who were sent to America centuries ago to enslave the colonies. But somewhere between the 18th century and the 21st, they lost track of time. The series follows these three as they scramble to redeem themselves, marvel at new technology, and get annoyed at each other along the way. What We Do in the Shadows is a delightfully silly series that’s guaranteed to be loved by fans of the original. From the complexities of flying, to nailing down exactly what powers these vampires have involved way more work than you might expect. Here’s everything we learned about the satire on set: 1 The series was easier to make than the movie for one big reason.
Tonally and thematically, there’s not much difference between the original What We Do in the Shadows and the new FX series. The show may follow a different set of vampires in a different country, but the wacky frustrations of living with roommates (regardless of vampire status) are still felt in full force. But there is one reason why making this new series was slightly easier for co-creators Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi: they both stayed behind the camera. “One difficult thing about the movie is that Taika and I were in the movie and directed the movie so it was hard to tell what things looked like,” Clement said. “We didn’t let anyone see the script of the movie. We’d just tell them what happens. This (series) is different. We let people learn their lines and then they get to improvise off their lines instead of improvising the whole thing.” Clement also noted that the influences for both the film and the series have remained the same. Lost Boys, Salem’s Lot, Interview with a Vampire, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Fright Night all inspired the look, tone, and vampire lore of these projects. They also took inspiration from one unexpected source: the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster. Horror’s great for all things vampiric, but leave it to a rock documentary to really capture a group of people who can’t stand each other. 2 One movie is to blame for Jemaine Clement's vampire obsession.
After talking to Clement it becomes clear that vampires aren’t merely a funny premise for him. They’re a hobby bordering on obsession. We can probably thank Scars of Dracula for The Flight of the Conchords actor’s deep vampy love. In the 1970s horror film there’s a scene where a bat throws up blood on the remains of Christopher Lee’s Dracula, causing him to rise from the grave. “I had nightmares for years after that, and that’s definitely related to why I’m still making a vampire thing,” Clement said. 3 Clement and Waititi were really invested in making sure the show sticks to vampire rules.
A lot of writing What We Do in the Shadows involved sifting through vampire mythology and deciding what rules the show’s vampires would follow. For example, these vampires don’t sparkle when they walk outside; they burn. They can’t eat human food without throwing up, but they can suck on leeches. And as Waititi says, “If vampires spill rice they’ll have to count them,” referencing an obscure bit of lore. However the vampire “rule” that got in the way of production the most had to do with invitations. In vampire mythology, a vampire can only walk into a new place if they’ve been invited inside. That simple detail proved to be a nightmare for the writer’s room. “We’re always writing scenes where it’s like, ‘And then they go into the person’s house,’ and Jemaine’s like ‘Well, hold it. They need to be invited into the house,'” Executive Producer Paul Sims said. 4 It's set in Staten Island because that's the New Zealand of New York.
Because What We Do in the Shadows is an American production, Clement and Waititi decided to bring their new vampire trio in the States. Though they settled on New York as the series’ central location, they were careful to pick a spot just left of center of where the real action is happening. The creators wanted the series to feel like their new vampires had arrived in America, but hadn’t gotten very far. “You can kind of say that Staten Island is the New Zealand of New York,” Sims said. “In the same way that Flight of the Concords has these sort of strangers in America feeling out of place, these are vampires in the modern world feeling out of place. But also sub-textually it’s also people from a foreign country in America feeling out of place.” Because none of the series’ writers are actually from Staten Island, they all fact-checked their Staten Island references with writer Tom Scharpling’s wife, WFMU radio DJ Terre T. “Anything we have to ask is authentic we have to ask Tom,” Clement said. “They get really stupid, like ‘Would you see a car like this in Staten Island?’” 5 For all its supernatural weirdness, 'What We Do in the Shadows' is supposed to be a traditional sitcom.
According to Clement, when he and Waititi were making the original What We Do in the Shadows movie, they joked about making a Real Housewives-inspired spin-off about different groups of vampires. So when FX approached them about turning the movie into a series, that’s exactly what they pitched. Though there’s an over-arching narrative in Season 1, the series is designed to be more like an older comedy, allowing viewers to jump in at any episode. Executive producer Paul Sims compared the format of the series to The Bob Newhart Show. You don’t have to watch what happened before or after to enjoy any one episode. Former Atlanta writer Stefani Robinson had a more straightforward comparison. “It’s basically [a] family sitcom [with this] group of wacky people living together. There’s something very cozy about it and comfortable and relatable I think,” Robinson said. 6 The series had an insane production schedule.
No matter what vampire lore you subscribe to, one rule remains the same: Vampires can’t walk in direct sunlight. That led to some pretty insane shooting schedules on the cast and crew’s end. It wasn’t uncommon for the team to start their days at 5 p.m. and to film until the sun rose at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. in the morning. Add in the fact they were filming in Toronto, Canada in the middle of the winter, the whole experience led to a difficult shoot. 7 If a documentary filmmaker can't film it, it doesn't happen in the show.
Just as important as this show’s many vampiric rules are the rules about its mockumentary format. The original What We Do in the Shadows was supposed to be a documentary about its ghoulish housemates, and the FX series has the same filmmaking ethos. To make this ridiculous series feel as authentic as possible, a full set of the main house was created. Production Designer Kate Bunch is largely responsible for creating the show’s dark and eclectic home. Though the house was created with removable walls to allow for more interesting camera angles, those were rarely used. Instead, each set was purposefully designed so that a cameraperson could shoot in 360 degrees. “It’s a very fun way of shooting because it’s quite fast and very loose and less limitations really than normal film stuff because we don’t do like over-the-shoulder camera stuff, and you have to shift everything around. You just play the scene and the camera has to just try and get it,” Waititi said. “You have to teach the camera people to be awake.” There is one major downside to this style of filmmaking. Because the camera is limited only to footage this human documentary crew could conceivably capture, many of the show’s stunts don’t look as impressive as they are. That means flying stunts are are often shot from the ground, there are no flashbacks, and there are no conversations that take place in rooms too small for the crew to fit in. 8 There's a whole lot of gore — 20 gallons of blood to be exact.
It was important to both Clement and Waititi that the series use as many practical effects as possible. Special Effects Coordinator J.R. Kenny made that dream a reality. According to Kenny, the show’s long list of effects has included setting people on fire, blood gags, a character biting someone’s neck upside down like the Spider-Man kiss, black puke, popcorn puke, pizza puke, werewolf piss, beer, and what the experienced special effects pro describes as the biggest blood spray he’s ever seen. “On this show we’ve been doing a little bit of everything. We’ve probably shot every type of bodily fluid,” Kenny said. The series even has a trick for its more flammable scenes: a special paste invented by Kenny. Though the formula doesn’t have an official name or a patent, it’s non-toxic, smokeless, and biodegradable. Also it can be applied and wiped off easily. As Kenny explained while he lit his arm on fire, the paste is a huge step up from the old method of burning rubber cement, which can be a health and safety nightmare. “You burn a person head to toe, and we used to fill up a studio like this with smoke using old, outdated methods. Now we can burn this stuff all day and have different set pieces on fire. Crew loves it, health and safety loves it, and we love using it,” Kenny said. 9 A lot of detail went into each characters' costume.
It’s good that there was a less destructive flammable option on the table because Costume Designer Amanda Neale puts a lot of effort into each character’s many elaborate outfits. Most costumes are custom made and can be turned around as quickly as overnight. They’re also designed with this show’s very specific requirements in mind. They allow enough movement for the stunts, and though Neale likes to stick to a darker color palate, sequins and beads are often added to pick up the warm candlelight of the house. But the most interesting aspect of the show’s many outfits is how the looks nod to each vampire’s ancient past. “[When you died] is kind of like your heyday,” Neale explained. “My heyday was the ‘70s and ‘80s, and I still have that vibe going on. So when a vampire dies in the 18th century, the 14th century, they kind of get stuck in that element too. They have some nostalgia for that period. So I like to incorporate and weave some of those elements into the costume.” 10 Natasia Demetriou was the most excited to fly, Matt Berry was the most nervous.
Another part of vampire lore the creators included from the original movie was the vampires’ ability to fly. That meant Stunt Coordinator Tig Fong had to routinely tear up the cast’s elaborate costumes to make room for their harnesses and jerk vests (a vest with hooks on it that allows stunt coordinators to easily attach cables to actors). “Very often, most often, we haven’t been using doubles. We use doubles to test these rigs, we use doubles to line up for camera, but in almost every case it’s the actor that you’re looking at,” Fong said. So who was the best flyer and who was the worst? According to Fong, Natasia Demetriou who plays the show’s matriarch Nadja was all abut flying. “When you’re up there it’s amazing,” Demetriou said. “It’s just all the prep and all the crucial but very boring health and safety stuff.” Her fictional vampire husband, on the other hand, was more hesitant. Fong said that Matt Berry told him he wasn’t eager to fly, though Fong noted you couldn’t tell by watching him. “Put this harness on and up you go,” Berry said about the experience. 11 'What We Do in the Shadows' created a whole new vampire for the show: Colin Robinson.
Most of the vampires in What We Do in the Shadows are by-the-books creatures of the night. And then there’s Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), a literal energy vampire. Proksch’s character is supposed to be a timelessly boring creature capable of boring people into near comas and consuming their energy. It’s a great take on everyone’s least favorite person in the office. It’s also played by an alumus from The Office. “I love just being back in an office doing kind of a mockumentary thing. It’s really fun to be back there,” Proksch said. “I felt like this was the type of role I can do really well in. I’ve always played milquetoast, arrogant but dumb characters and so I felt like this was something I could work with really easily.” 12 The look of series' new familiar Guillermo was based on Guillermo del Toro. One of the funniest relationships in Season 1 is between former Ottoman Empire warrior Nandor (Kayvan Novak) and his sweet familiar Guillermo, who desperately wants to be a vampire. Harvey Guillen is wonderful in the role, just hopeful enough to add some humanity to this dark comedy. But when he was trying out for the part the actor was worried he wouldn’t be chosen for a role that was for someone roughly 10 years older than him. He came up with a solution modeled after the character’s own name: make Guillermo look like Guillermo del Toro. “When I went in for the role I remember that I just like parted my hair, I wore Harry Potter glasses that I popped out the lenses for. I wore a really like ’80s version sweater,” Guillen said. “I thought, this has got to age me up a little.” It worked. Not only did Clement, Waititi, Casting Director Alison Jones, and the executives at FX all agree he was perfect for the part but Waititi insisted the series use the look Guillen created to inspire Guillermo for the rest of the season. 13 Vampire sex is even crazier than you thought.
The cast of What We Do in the Shadows may not scream “sex” quite like the casts ofTwilight or even True Blood, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to get down and dirty. Vampire sex is a huge part of this zany show, especially when it comes to Berry and Demetriou’s married couple Lazlo and Nadja. “We’re like hundreds of years old so we’ve pretty much done everything, not only to each other but to every other living thing. Within reason,” Berry said. “It’s actually a very modern open marriage. It’s very millennial,” Demetriou added. We’re going to have to wait until later this March to learn exactly what that means. What We Do in the Shadows premieres on FX Wednesday, March 27 at 10/9c. Where to stream What We Do in the Shadows
TagsWho plays Stevens Dad?Tom Scharpling was born on February 9, 1969. He is a producer and actor, known for Steven Universe ...
Who Voices Greg Steven?Tom Scharpling
What we did in the shadows Wiki?What We Do in the Shadows is a 2014 New Zealand mockumentary horror comedy film written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi and the first installment in the What We Do in the Shadows franchise.
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Tom scharpling what we do in the shadows
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