What we do in the shadow sequel (film)

[Neil]

Seems we have a sequel on the way - stack.net.nz/movies/news/what-we-do-in-the-shadows-2


Taika Waititi has confirmed that he and Jemaine Clement are keen on a sequel to their hit comedy What We Do In The Shadows.

I'll have to and give the original another go as I couldn't get into it.

[MinionZombie]

A few judicious trims would have benefitted the first, but all-in-all I rather enjoyed it. It'll be interesting to see where they go with a sequel, although the first was pretty contained as a story in a way ... we'll see, I guess.

Sometimes the sense of improv in the film gets a bit too strong - as if there's too much making things up on the spot - it might benefit from a stronger script. It's like the difference between the Apatow stable of movies and the Edgar Wright flicks. The former are very funny a lot of the time, but numerous moments feel so thunderously obvious in their improv nature with the actors and writer/director just making up funny lines on-the-spot which they'll choose from later in the edit (and visually speaking the Apatow films are rather generic - the camera and the editing is rarely used as a comedic tool) ... the latter, on the other hand, feel much more thought-out and controlled, the jokes feel firmly planted and reasoned out, and they're often sewn throughout the film to create running jokes or allow for expectations to be subverted (thus making the joke even funnier).

Both ways can have their weaknesses, but I think the 'improv heavy' method has the potential for being far weaker in general. You might think of something wonderfully hilarious off-the-cuff, but you're just as likely to come up with something that was only funny in the moment - and something that doesn't necessarily fit into the entire film - so I think What We Do In The Shadows might have benefitted from some tighter scripting and editing (a few gags were paced too slow, for example). However, there was also much to enjoy in WWDITS, so I'd welcome another go-round. :)