What We Do in the Shadows - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of What We Do in the Shadows or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to What We Do in the Shadows

[bessie]

Taika Waititi can speak German having briefly lived in the country so was able to incorporate some of the phrases he remembered into the script.

[caroline]

The end credits show that all four of the main human characters share a name with their actors - Stu: Stu Rutherford, Jackie: Jackie van Beek, Officer O'Leary: Karen O'Leary, and Officer Minogue: Mike Minogue.

[addison]

Despite being inspired by Bram Stoker's classic novel "Dracula", Jemaine Clement still hasn't read the book.

[oscar]

"Vlad" refers to himself as "Vlad the poker," a play on the infamous "Vlad the impaler," the 15th-century Transylvanian potentate who was the primary inspiration for Dracula.

[manuel]

In total, it took 9 years to bring the film to the screen. In the time it took to be made, the number of vampire films and TV shows dramatically increased, which worried the filmmakers.

[sophie]

Jackie van Beek (Jackie) was in the early stages of pregnancy while filming.

[melinda]

Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi wrote 150 pages of actual script but chose not to show it to a single person involved in the film (both crew and cast). The reasoning was to keep things spontaneous and actors to be surprised by the events unfolding before their eyes.

[claude]

The character of Petyr was conceived as devoid of personality, but unscripted scenes of the actor in makeup were expensive so extra footage of the actor in makeup was shot, such as the scene of him listening to music.

[veronica]

The directors were able to bring screenings of the film to the United States after a successful Kickstarter fund-raising campaign.

[albert]

About 125 hours of footage was shot, most of which was improvisation from the cast. The process of editing that down to a 90-minute movie took almost a year.

[mathew]

The building used for the exterior shots of the vampires' house used to be Peter Jackson's office.

[camila]

Viago and Deacon came to New Zealand from Germany, though Deacon is originally from Romania, along with Petyr. It is implied that Vladislav is also from Romania, as his character is named after after Vlad the Impaler.

[bernice]

Key influences for the writers were The Lost Boys (1987), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) and Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), all of which are heavily quoted or referenced in the film. As indeed are Blade (1998), Twilight (2008) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997).

[kylie]

During the scene in the bar when the viewer first meets Jackie, the song "The Captain" by The Phoenix Foundation is playing in the background. The band is based in Wellington, NZ, where the movie is set and filmed.

[ronnie]

The hill, where the vampires have a run-in with the werewolves, is the same hill filmed in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), where Frodo and the hobbits are running and hiding from the Black Rider under the roots of a tree.

[tamara]

They lost a charred, polystyrene skeleton/body during the shoot, after throwing it in the harbor for a funeral scene (the scene didn't end up in the film), and not realizing it was drifting away. Taika Waititi commented on the situation saying, "It was quite realistic looking, so we had to put a press release out saying that if anyone finds this charred body washed up on a beach, don't be alarmed, it's just a prop".

[ethel]

While the vampires discuss Stu at the Unholy Masquerade, the convenience store cashier (to whom Nick earlier reveals himself to be a vampire) appears briefly in the foreground of the frame.

[carla]

There was talk of a spin-off movie titled 'What We Do in the Moonlight' which would have followed the werewolf pack.

[melinda]

Taika Waititi based his performance on his mother. Jemaine Clement based his on Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).