FILM · 2014 · NEW ZEALAND
What We Do in the Shadows
24 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
24 Interesting Facts About What We Do in the Shadows
Interesting Facts (18)
- #001
Stu Rutherford (Stu) had never had a real acting role before this film; his only screen credit was as an extra in Boy (2010). A part-time business analyst at the Wellington firm LanWorx, he signed on believing he'd be doing computer work and playing a small part.
- #002
Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi wrote a 150-page script but didn't show it to anyone on the film, cast or crew. They described each scene only in broad strokes, sometimes giving a starting and ending point, to keep things spontaneous and let the actors be genuinely surprised by what happened in front of them.
- #003
Taika Waititi modeled his performance on his mother; Jemaine Clement based his on Gary Oldman in Dracula (1992).
- #004
The building used for exterior shots of the vampires' house used to be Peter Jackson's office.
- #005
The hill where the vampires face off with the werewolves is the same one used in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), where Frodo and the hobbits hide under a tree's roots from the Black Rider.
- #006
A sequel, We're Wolves, is in development: another mockumentary, this time about a pack of werewolves living in present-day Wellington, New Zealand.
- #007
Each main character resembles a famous screen vampire: Petyr looks like Count Orlok from Nosferatu, Deacon echoes David from The Lost Boys, Vladislav recalls Gary Oldman's Dracula, Nick suggests Edward from Twilight (2008) and Viago resembles Louis de Pointe du Lac from Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994).
- #008
The film took 9 years to reach the screen, and the flood of vampire films and shows in that time made the producers nervous.
- #009
Petyr was meant to have no personality at all, but since getting the actor into makeup was expensive and he had no lines, they shot extra footage of him while he was made up, such as the scene of him listening to music.
- #010
The police officers who turn up at the house after Deacon and Nick's fight later got their own spin-off, Wellington Paranormal (2018), another Taika Waititi/Jemaine Clement production, in which the same officers investigate and explain all sorts of paranormal goings-on.
- #011
Taika Waititi speaks some German from a short stint living in Germany, which let him work a few remembered phrases into the script.
- #012
As the vampires discuss Stu at the Unholy Masquerade, the supermarket cashier Nick had earlier told he was a vampire briefly appears in the foreground.
- #013
The bars and clubs the vampires visit are real ones in Wellington's nightlife district around Courtenay Place.
- #014
Viago was inspired partly by C-3PO and partly by Taika Waititi's mother.
- #015
The end credits reveal that all four main human characters share their actors' names: Stu is Stu Rutherford, Jackie is Jackie van Beek, Officer O'Leary is Karen O'Leary and Officer Minogue is Mike Minogue.
- #016
The New Zealand Documentary Board credited in the opening titles isn't a government body but a real company that specializes in comedy.
- #017
The words VICTORIA BOWLING CLUB can be seen on the side of the Cathedral of Despair.
- #018
Even though the film draws on Bram Stoker's classic "Dracula," Jemaine Clement still hasn't read the novel.
Production Story (1)
- #019
The film didn't do well at first in its native New Zealand, so its US release was cancelled. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the directors got it screened in the US anyway, and it ended up as the year's most pirated film.
Behind the Scenes (3)
- #020
During filming, the charred polystyrene skeleton/body was tossed into the harbor for a funeral scene (cut from the film) and then lost, with no one noticing it had drifted off. Taika Waititi said: "It looked quite realistic, so we had to put out a press release saying that if anyone finds this charred corpse washed up on the beach, don't panic, it's just a prop."
- #021
Jackie van Beek, who plays Jackie, was in the early stages of pregnancy during the shoot.
- #022
In the bar scene where we first meet Jackie, "The Captain" by The Phoenix Foundation plays in the background; the band comes from Wellington, New Zealand, where the film is set and was shot.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #023
In Germany the film is called "5 Zimmer, Küche, Sarg" (5 Rooms, Kitchen, Coffin), a pun on the 1992 German TV film 5 Zimmer, Küche, Bad (1992) ("5 Rooms, Kitchen, Bath"), starring Christoph Waltz.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #024
Viago and Deacon came to New Zealand from Germany, but Deacon, like Petyr, is originally Romanian, and Vladislav is implied to be Romanian too, since he's named after Vlad the Impaler.
Related pages
- Thor: Ragnarok — What We Do in the Shadows comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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