One of the funniest films ever made This Is Spinal Tap is almost certainly the greatest mockumentary in existence. The film follows the band Spinal Tap on tour and the absolute ludicrousness that comes with it. Brilliant joke is followed by brilliant joke followed by brilliant joke followed by being second on the bill to a puppet show. While not the first mockumentary it is the film that cemented the idea of what a mockumentary is.

What We Do In The Shadows

A mockumentary that shines a light on the vampire community of New Zealand and discovers that as well as being terrifying monsters they can also be quite difficult housemates. The four vampire housemates live a life in the shadows, using human familiars, or rather, familiar, to handle their everyday needs and to lure people to their deaths.

The Rutles

The Rutles is a mockumentary about a band that in many ways bears a striking resemblance to The Beatles and the film charts their successes and failures. As is appropriate for a film made by Eric Idle it is incredibly silly and has a very Monty Python feel to it, the narrator is very much lifted straight out of Monty Python. The four Rutles are Dirk McQuickly, Ron Nasty, Barry Wom and Stig O’Hara, and those are by no means the best name with Leggy Mountbatten, a Brian Epstein parody, taking that prize.

The Nowhere Inn

Perhaps the oddest entry on this list – The Nowhere Inn, is a truly bizarre mockumentary, pop star St Vincent (or rather Annie Clark) asks a filmmaker friend to make a documentary/concert film. But the friend some realises that while St Vincent is an unconventional rock star weirdo the real Annie is not as compelling. So the friend asks Annie to make it more interesting and she agrees to be effectively become St Vincent 24/7. Which it turns out can have some negative consequences. The film plays with the idea of identity and reality and not just in terms of making films and documentaries.

I Blame Society

After another rejected project filmmaker Gillian has a new idea for a film – a documentary of her following the steps taken by serial killers as they lead up to their first kill. One of the first scenes is Gillian asking her friends to repeat a comment they had made about her – that she would be a good serial killer. She chooses a victim, does recon on their house, does research on murder…at some point it becomes clear that this is no longer someone simply staging this for an interesting documentary but something much darker.

District 9

By no means a mockumentary all the way through parts of the movie are made in this exact style,making a documentary of the arrival of the alien spaceship, how they are treated by people, “interviews” with academics and experts. It also has moments of fly-on-the-wall mockumentary as a film crew goes to follow Wikus as he issues the eviction notices to the aliens.

Documentary Now!

A mockumentary tv show created by Saturday Night Live legends Bill Hader and Fred Armisen that developed out of SNL sketches. Each episode is it’s own mockumentary on a different subject – such as the career of soft rock band The Blue Jean Committee and door to door globe salesmen. The first episode, Sandy Passage, is a parody of cult documentary Grey Gardens; the real documentary detailing the lives of two reclusive, upper-class women lives in poverty in a crumbling mansion, and the mockumentary captures the oddness of the original and makes it even funnier.

For Your Consideration

Another mockumentary from the team behind This Is Spinal Tap this time focused on Hollywood and “Oscar-buzz”. A documentary is being made of the making on a film called Home For Purim, a low budget drama about a Jewish family and in the convuluted way these rumours start one person suggests there’s talk of Oscars and that snowballs. With that information out there the actors, writers etc all obsess about the possibility of them getting an Oscar. The highlight of the film is the portrayals of Hollywood news programmes where Jane Lynch and Fred Willard play obnoxious and idiotic “journalists” with Fred Willard (in the 70s at this point) trying to look like he’s in his 20s.

Ghostwatch

One of the oddest things ever to appear on the BBC Ghostwatch was supposed to be a live broadcast paranormal investigation, utilising a range of real television presenters to play themselves, such as Michael Parkinson and Sarah Greene. Parkinson stays in the studio while Greene visits a house that the residents claim to be haunted. It is a curious item of television history as it is not terribly convincing but was quite original at the time (I watched it as a child and was terrified).

Rec

The line between mockumentary and found footage genres can be a little muddled at times, but as Rec is construed as a documentary for Spanish television it counts. Angela is a reporter doing a documentary on local firefighters, going with them on calls, they arrive at an apartment building where it is believed a resident has fallen ill but is locked inside their apartment. When they get inside they are attacked by what can only be described as a zombie. They then quickly realise that the building has been quarantined by the authorities and any attempt to leave will have severe consequences.

Also Read: Director Deep Dive: Neill Blomkamp

The post Ten Great Mockumentaries To Watch appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

What We Do In The Shadows – The Film

Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement wrote, directed and starred in this mockumentary comedy from 2014, in which a documentary crew follow a household of vampires, capturing not only the killing, blood-drinking and monstrous deeds but arguments over chores and the daily problems of vampire life. Whilst the vampires were certainly dangerous they were also surprisingly sweet and likeable, their growing friendship with a useful human – Stu – and their illuminating monologues to the camera.

What We Do In The Shadows – The TV Show

WWDITS returned as a tv show with a different cast and is now set in Staten Island, New York. This time the vampires are Nandor the Relentless, a once fearsome warrior now perhaps a little too comfortable, Nadja Antipaxos, a 500-year-old Greek Romani vampire, who is married to – and the vampiric creator of – Laszlo Cravensworth, an English nobleman. There is also Colin Robinson, a far more modern creature and energy vampire, who sucks up energy from humans by being boring and insufferable, and Nandor’s familiar, Guillermo, a loveable vampire-obsessed nerd. These five bumble through life getting into feuds with werewolves, going to Superb Owl parties held by their friendly, if stupid, neighbour and occasionally trying to conquer America.

WWDITS has one of the best episodes of television of recent years; the episode titled “On The Run” is usually referred to as the Jackie Daytona episode. In an attempt to escape a debt to Jim the Vampire (played by the legendary Mark Hamill), Laszlo flees, leaving behind his wife and friends. Laszlo moves to Pennsylvania and takes over a bar, pretending to be a human named Jackie Daytona, utilising his fool-proof human disguise of jeans and a toothpick.

True Blood

HBO supernatural drama True Blood was set in a world where vampires had made their presence known to humans after scientists developed a synthetic blood, vampires could drink and therefore would no longer need to feed on humans. Whilst by no means a comedy the show delighted in some of the odder aspects of vampire life, such as their love of puns (a major setting is the vampire bar Fangtasia), “boring” vampires like Eddie Fournier (played by the brilliant Stephen Root) who are far removed from the exciting stereotypes, and how vampires are perceived. One of the first scenes is in a convenience store where a very gothy cashier pretends to be a vampire to frighten a customer only for a real vampire (who blended in seamlessly as a typical Louisiana resident) to reveal himself.

Shadow of the Vampire

This is a very odd film from 2000 and is a play on the classic Nosferatu, indeed it’s the story of making the film. Sort of. John Malkovich plays F. W. Murnau (the director of Nosferatu) who tells the cast that their lead character, the vampire Count Orlok, is being played by an extreme theatre actor who insists on being in character at all times. Unsurprisingly this turns out not to be a complete truth and the actor is an actual vampire. The film plays with the tropes of filmmaking as much as it does with vampirism, when the vampire kills a key crew member Murnau is furious but does say, “Why him? Why not the script-girl?” as she is more disposable. Murnau is the ultra-controlling director, and the vampire is the difficult star. Orlok makes demands on script changes and personnel and threatens to go off in a huff if his demands aren’t met.

Preacher

Cult tv show Preacher (based on the graphic novels) showcased many supernatural creatures in a different light – including vampires. One of the central characters, Cassidy (Joe Gilgun) is an odd vampire, he drinks, he fights, he causes trouble and swears a lot but is usually quite a nice guy, with perhaps his most shocking trait is disdain for The Big Lebowski. Whilst not a smooth talker he can be persuasive, at one point convincing an agent he works for Game of Thrones casting, he is also a romantic, with sex and drug-filled anecdotes that are almost poetic in their retelling. It deals with vampire issues that are often not addressed – such as Cassidy’s human son, now of course much older than he is and doesn’t speak any English, and Cassidy deals with this in his own inimitable style. Then there are the problems of vampire dating with Cassidy finding more people who roleplay as vampires, rather than actual vampires. Even the vampire cult Cassidy finds, where humans follow a charismatic vampire (a real one) on the path to becoming vampires themselves is somewhat disappointing.

Perhaps the thing that is most unusual about these vampires is that they are very human, in both versions of WWDITS relationships between friends are extremely important as well as the minutiae of everyday life. The vampire in Shadow of the Vampire wants recognition and respect, those in True Blood run businesses and despite immortality and vampiric powers can still be miserable.

Also Read: Horror Films To Enjoy During The Long Dark Winter Months

The post What We Do In The Shadows & Unusual Vampires appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.