Richard Crouse

An opening shot of a pale hand reaching out of a coffin to switch off an alarm clock signals that “What We Do in the Shadows” is not your average vampire movie.

Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, creators of the series “Flight of the Conchords,” are Vladislav and Viago, two of a group of vampires who share a house in modern day New Zealand. Like their flat mates, Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) and the Nosferatu look-alike Petyr (Ben Fransham), they’re having trouble adapting to undead life with roommates. “When you get four vampires living in a flat, obviously there’s going to be a lot of tension.” They have the same arguments all roomies have—the splitting up of chores, forgetting to put newspaper down before killing someone in the living room—and things don’t get much better when some new blood in the form of Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) decides that being a vampire really sucks.

Just when you thought mockumentary and vampire movies had played themselves out along comes “What We Do in the Shadows,” a vampire mockumentary that feels fresh and funny. The movie answers some burning questions—How does a stylish vampire get dressed for a night out when they can’t check their look in the mirror?—and has fun with undead mythology but it is when the film treats the characters as regular, technology challenged, pain in the neck people, that the movie really draws blood.